RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan — “First of all, we should make ‘to live’ our company’s management policy,” Michihiro Kono, the 37-year-old new president of soy sauce maker Yagisawa Shoten, said at the company’s first morning meeting since the March 11 earthquake.
“Let’s put our hearts into it and keep on fighting!” he told the about 30 employees who had made it into the office Friday. Sorely missed was one veteran worker who died in the tsunami.
Friday was the first day back at work since the disaster for the well-established soy sauce maker, which was established in 1807. Yagisawa Shoten’s soy sauce — fermented in barrels made of local specialty Kesen cedar — is renowned throughout the country for its fragrance, and its traditional thick-walled storehouse was a symbol of the city.
