Okinawan Island Chili Peppers Can Grow on the Mainland. Kukulcan Envisions a 'Future of Food That Never Gives Up'

Kukulcan Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Hon Rina) announced on April 1, 2026, its future business concept aimed at realizing "a world where nothing and no one is wasted."

We are committed to building a system that fundamentally changes the state of food and agriculture worldwide, through demonstrations and challenges across various regions of Japan.

(Our company endorses April Dream, which aims to make April 1st a day for announcing dreams. This press release represents Kukulcan Co., Ltd.'s dream.)

Our Dream

Our dream.

It is to create a world where the dignity of all existence, including "food" around the world, is protected.

In particular, the dignity of people engaged in essential industries such as agriculture and food must be protected. We believe that this is the foundation that supports the dignity of all people.

The first thing we want to achieve is a world where agricultural products are not discarded due to economic rationality.

And at the same time, it is also about reconstructing a food system that allows the world to continue to be sustainable.

Challenges beginning across Japan

Kukulcan is already advancing concrete initiatives across various regions of Japan towards realizing that future.

### Successful Cultivation of Okinawan Island Chili Peppers on the Mainland ~ Building a New Cultivation Model to Respond to the Era of Climate Change

Kukulcan challenged the cultivation of island chili peppers, a crop unique to the Okinawa region, in Saitama Prefecture and successfully cultivated them. This spring, a harvest of up to 100kg is expected. This initiative was realized by implementing it within the TAKAMIYA AGRIBUSINESS PARK house of Takamiya Co., Ltd., and we are proceeding with the establishment and verification of a stable cultivation environment.

Island chili peppers are one of the important crops supporting Okinawan food culture, but in recent years, their stable cultivation has become difficult due to changes in growth environments caused by climate change, an increase in pest damage, and the aging of producers.

We believe that the purpose of this initiative is not simply to "grow this crop in another location," but to convey the issues occurring in Okinawa itself to society and connect them to the future.

In this initiative, in addition to environmental data such as temperature, humidity, and sunlight, cultivation behavior data is accumulated, and optimization is performed by AI. By making cultivation techniques that have been regionally dependent reproducible as data, we aim to build a model that can be sustainably produced in other regions.

In the future, we also envision returning these technologies to Okinawa to provide new options for the region's agriculture to remain sustainable.