Rebooting Yahiko Village, the Birthplace of Echigo Culture, with an "Industry OS" - Towards a Future of Autonomous Growth Where Resources and Challenges Circulate

Our company supports "April Dream," an initiative that aims to make April 1st a day to broadcast dreams. This press release is the dream of "YAHIKO Avenir LLC" (Yahiko Village, Niigata Prefecture; Representative: Katsuhiko Warashina).

Yahiko Village in Niigata Prefecture has been a "land that generates industry" since ancient times. We now declare our "dream" to fully utilize the resources and potential of this land to update Yahiko Village into a "village where next-generation industrial models are continuously and autonomously born."

## ■ Achievements: The Shape of Upcycling utilizing Yahiko's "Out-of-Spec Products"

"Edamame" is a local specialty of Yahiko Village. During the cultivation process, even if there is no problem with the taste, about 40% of the total crop has been discarded as "out-of-spec" due to shape or size. We currently view this challenge as a valuable regional resource and have already realized an upcycling business using our proprietary powdering technology (edamame powder).

By increasing shelf life through powdering and greatly expanding the range of applications, we regenerate it into high value-added products such as "edamame ice cream" and "edamame salt." We have constructed a cycle that goes beyond simply reducing waste to creating new industrial value from unutilized resources. We want to connect this solid response of "discarding nothing, utilizing everything" to a larger industrial circulation (Industry OS).

## ■ Challenge: The Future "Dream" We Envision

Our dream is to redesign the industrial structure of Yahiko Village itself as a single "OS (Operating System)." Agriculture, processing, logistics, sales channels, human resources, and digital. We aim to integrate these previously fragmented elements and allow the entire region to autonomously generate profit...