TOKYO, July 2 — As the print circulation of newspapers has been declining due to a shift towards digital media, Tonichi Printing Co., a major newspaper printing firm in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, has launched a new business of growing wood ear mushrooms.
The business started as an in-house project of The Mainichi Newspapers Shutoken Center Co., Tonichi Printing’s subsidiary located in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, which operates a newspaper printing plant. It is the firm’s second project of starting a new business after medaka Japanese killfish breeding.
The firm hopes such attempts to monetize new businesses will also lead to revitalizing its employees.
An unused space inside a room for making newspaper printing plates was turned into a wood ear mushroom cultivation facility of roughly 81 square meters.
The firm adopted an integrated environmental control system following a trial cultivation. The cultivation plant operates around the clock with some employees working night shifts.
“Domestically-grown wood ear mushrooms are scarce, occupying only about 10 percent of the total amount distributed in Japan,” an official of the company said in explaining the project’s potential.
The official said the firm’s factory is suited for wood ear mushroom cultivation as thorough temperature and humidity control is implemented at the facility in order to maintain print quality.
Workers at the plant are experienced in handling machinery and even manufactured equipment used in the cultivation facility themselves.
Around 1,500 mushroom beds are currently set up at the facility, producing some 400 kilograms of wood ear mushrooms a month.
The firm plans to increase the number of mushroom beds to 5,600 in the future to produce more than 12 tons of wood ear mushrooms annually.
It is aiming to achieve annual sales of more than 10 million yen and recoup the initial costs of investment in three or four years.
The wood ear mushrooms are sold online and to restaurants. The firm is also working to promote the product to be used in school lunches and develop processed products.
The firm has been soliciting ideas for new businesses from its employees. The ideas are adopted based on such criteria as profitability, uniqueness and whether they will contribute to revitalizing its workers.
In 2023, the company launched a business of medaka fish farming at its plant in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, by setting up breeding containers on the rooftop of the facility and selling the fish at an unmanned store.
Thanks to the medaka raising boom that spread during the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm currently breeds about 2,000 to 3,000 Japanese killfish of about 20 varieties.
It organizes an event once a month, attracting local residents and medaka lovers, who would otherwise be unfamiliar with a printing factory.
An official of The Mainichi Newspapers Shutoken Center Co., who has obtained certification as a food safety manager, works at the firm’s wood ear mushroom cultivation facility in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture.