Top Malatang Shin-Okubo Flagship Store Registered as 'Shinjuku City Food Loss Reduction Cooperation Store'— Strengthening Initiatives Linked with Regions, Municipalities, and International Events for Sustainable Food Culture —

■ Top Malatang & Ouchi de Malatang Inc.

Top Malatang & Ouchi de Malatang Inc. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Co-Representative: Yu Saito), a group company of Nexter Inc. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Hiroki Hosoda), which conducts SNS marketing, is engaged in a comprehensive food distribution and sales business centered on "Top Malatang." The company operates the D2C brand "Ouchi de Malatang" (https://maratan.tokyo), delivering frozen malatang directly to consumers, and conducts B2B wholesale business to retailers, bath facilities, and lodging facilities. Furthermore, starting from the Top Malatang Shin-Okubo flagship store, the birthplace of Japanese-style Malatang, the company aims to build a unique business model that covers food from upstream to downstream by developing directly-managed stores (COS) and franchises (FC) in coordination with local resources under the theme of local production for local consumption.

We aim to establish Japanese-style Malatang as a new delicacy of the Reiwa era and grow it into a new pillar of Japanese food culture.

■ About the Shinjuku City Food Loss Reduction Cooperation Store Registration System

The "Food Loss Reduction Cooperation Store Registration System" operated by Shinjuku City is designed to visualize food loss reduction efforts implemented by local restaurants and food-related businesses, and to promote food loss reduction throughout the region by widely disseminating this information to residents and visitors. Registered stores receive cooperation store stickers and awareness posters, have their store information posted on the official city website, and engage in continuous awareness activities linked to the city's environmental initiatives.

Targeted efforts include appropriate ingredient management, adjustment of prep volumes, utilization of non-standard vegetables, encouraging full consumption or takeaways, offering small-portion options, and posting awareness displays, positioning the system as one that evaluates the accumulation of daily actions taken by stores.

Shinjuku City places importance on strengthening partnerships between the city and businesses to achieve the 2030 food loss reduction target, and the registration system is considered one of its central policies.

Within these regional administrative efforts, the Top Malatang Shin-Okubo flagship store, which has established the "original Japanese Malatang" as a "new Reiwa delicacy" based on the idea of medicine and food sharing the same origin, and has continued to strive for efficient ingredient use, optimization of prep amounts, and environmental consideration, was registered as a Shinjuku City Food Loss Reduction Cooperation Store in recognition of its practices and stance.

■ Previous Initiatives of Top Malatang

- Collaboration with Osaka-Kansai Expo mascot Myaku-Myaku: "EXPO2025 Myaku-Myaku Malatang" sales

The development of the "EXPO2025 Myaku-Myaku Malatang," featuring the official mascot of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, was conducted as an attempt to convey the Expo's philosophy of "diversity," "creation," and "future-oriented" through food. By combining international events and food, not only did they evolve Malatang culture in a uniquely Japanese way, but they also created the experiential value of "food as communication." Through this, Top Malatang took a major step forward as a food brand with public significance and established a new category called "Malatang open to society."

- Participation in the "Mikuni Minato Co-creation Project" (Fukui Prefecture Sakai City x NTT West x事業構想大学院大学)

In the "Mikuni Minato Co-creation Project," a collaboration between Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture, NTT West, and the Project Management Institute (MPD), Top Malatang participated in creating new local specialties that combine regional history and food culture. Starting with the thought, "Can we make waiting for a train a chance to touch the region and know the locality, rather than just passing time?" development began on a bowl of soup using ingredients from Mikuni. By repeating classroom learning based on the MPD curriculum, local fieldwork, research on local resources, and exchange meetings with local residents, they incorporated the context unique to Mikuni Minato into their business. The "Mikuni Minato Malatang," a result of implementation polished while traversing theory and practice, is the outcome of this study.