Our Dream: To Fill This Planet with Happiness Through "Umai" (Deliciousness)

Our company supports April Dream, which aims to make April 1st a day to express dreams. This press release is the dream of the "Manpuku Holdings Group."
Manpuku Holdings Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Tomoharu Kato; hereinafter "Manpuku HD"), which operates a business succession platform specializing in food, has participated in "April Dream" hosted by PR TIMES Corporation. We hereby declare our commitment to connect Japan's precious food culture and food industry to the future and expand its value to the world, aiming to realize the dream of ["To fill this planet with happiness through 'Umai'."]

## Our Vision for ["To fill this planet with happiness through 'Umai'."]
The most fundamental and universal happiness for humanity is "food."
Surrounded by seas, rivers, and forests, and blessed with four seasons, Japan has nurtured excellent providers along with rich food ingredients.
"Japanese food" is a cultural asset to be proud of worldwide.

However, this food is now facing a crisis.
In rural areas, many companies that produce delicious food are struggling with management difficulties.
The increasing number of business closures among small and medium-sized enterprises that have supported food culture due to the harshness of the primary industry, lack of successors, cost competition, and adaptation to digitalization is a serious social issue.

We gathered in 2021 and founded a business succession platform specializing in food to take over these traditional companies, preserve their values, connect them to the future, and further expand them globally.

["To fill this planet with happiness through 'Umai'."]
Now is the time to transform Japan's food culture into an attractive industry that the world can be proud of.

## Manpuku Holdings' Five Years: Walking with Regional "Local Heroes"
Manpuku HD operates as a food-specialized business succession platform that takes over restaurants and food companies that are on the verge of being lost due to reasons such as a lack of successors, carefully preserving their spirit, and connecting them to the future.
Our greatest strength lies in the synergy of our "Area Republic," where group companies across Japan, from Hokkaido to Kumamoto, work hand-in-hand, handling everything from midstream (meat and seafood processing functions) to downstream (store operations).

We aim not only to preserve the "Umai" of "local heroes" who have been loved in their regions for a long time but also to refine them as businesses, make them grow again, and spread them domestically and internationally as values originating from Japan.
As of April 1, 2026, we have successfully taken over 15 businesses (including 1 in the US).

## Towards Realizing the Dream: A Food Bridge Expanding from New York to the World
In addition to establishing a domestic business succession model, we have also started food-related businesses (local business succession) in the United States through Manpuku USA, Inc., newly established in November 2024.
(First overseas expansion project: Business succession of "OSAKANA" in New York, USA)

Currently, interest in Japanese food is growing worldwide.
In the US, Japanese restaurants have expanded to over 20,000 establishments, but many of them are operated by non-Japanese owners. There is still great potential for opportunities to convey values and charms originating from Japan from a Japanese perspective.

At our US base, we are creating a mechanism for Japanese food to be more deeply understood and spread globally through test marketing of Japanese food brands, collection of local consumer data, and support for product development and expansion.

This also serves as a foothold for Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises to overcome barriers that were difficult to cross alone and step out into the world.
Starting from this US base, we aim to bring "Umai" from Japan to the world.
Each step accumulated in this way will lead to the realization of our dream: ["To fill this planet with happiness through 'Umai'."]

## Comment from Tomoharu Kato, Representative Director and President
~Thoughts behind April Dream~
"Japan has so many truly 'Umai' things. However, many of them are reluctantly closing their doors due to a lack of successors. We believe that simply preserving them is not enough. We want to carefully polish the baton we have inherited, make it grow, enhance its value, and elevate it to a presence that can thrive worldwide. To connect Japan's world-class food culture and food industry to the future and spread it globally. That is our pride and our mission."

**Overview of Manpuku HD's Business**
In recent years, the lack of successors among small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan has become a social issue, often referred to as the "2025 problem." Our company was founded in April 2021 by members with extensive experience in the food industry. We specialize in taking over food-related businesses that are struggling with a lack of successors, and in approximately five years since our founding, we have facilitated the business succession of 15 companies (including one in the US).
Manpuku HD's business model is to "protect the feelings of founders/founding families, the company's tradition and brand, together with employees, and not to sell off the businesses after succession, but to grow and develop together as a group."

## Company Profile
Company Name: Manpuku Holdings Co., Ltd.
HP: https://manpuku-hd.jp
Address: VORT Akihabara VII 5F, 3-7-15 Iwamotocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Representative Director and President: Tomoharu Kato
Business Description: Business succession platform specializing in food