Sojitz Corporation of America

Check out Sushi Avenue's great looking (and even better tasting) booth at #IDDBA!

Sojitz Establishes a Joint Venture Company with EFM to Launch a Forestland Fund in the United States - Accelerating Decarbonization through Carbon Credit Opportunities -   Sojitz Corporation ("Sojitz"), through its 100% subsidiary Sojitz Corporation of America, has concluded a joint venture agreement with EFM Investments & Advisory, LLC ("EFM") and established EFM Sojitz Management, LLC to launch a forestland fund in the United States. The fund will generate high-integrity carbon credits and promote climate-smart forest stewardship in the United States.   The fund will also enable investors to directly receive carbon credits generated from Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects. In addition, through their participation in the fund, investors can work together to drive climate action beyond their value chains through nature-based solutions, while supporting forest conservation and biodiversity protection.   Moving forward, together with EFM, Sojitz will work with a diverse range of investors including Japanese companies to establish a large-scale fund and enhance fund value. 【Forest managed by EFM on the Oregon Coast】

Craving sushi but haven’t trained for years to be a sushi chef? No problem! MF America (MFA) is the U.S. import and sales office for Marine Foods Corporation (MFJ) - one of Japan’s leading suppliers of sushi ingredients and seafood. Marine Foods utilizes its global network of 35 countries and expertise honed over its 60+ year history to deliver more than 100 million pounds of seafood annually. We're excited (and hungry!) about Marine Foods' growing presence in the U.S. and the Americas. Check out MFA's new website! https://lnkd.in/eycStbVs

Sojitz: powered by people. Clever 30 second pictogram video: https://lnkd.in/ey5_f-JB

Shoe Dog: The Nike Story, Including Sojitz's Essential Support In the 1960s, a small but rapidly growing shoe company struggles to get financing because the young enterprise is burning cash and has a weak balance sheet. Its main bank threatens to dissolve business ties and other banks won’t take the risk to extend the company the credit it desperately needs. Bankruptcy is a constant possibility. What’s a company to do? Turn to Sojitz. In Shoe Dog, A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE, Phil Knight shares the inside story and looks back at his life and the decades he has spent growing tiny start-up shoe distributor Blue Ribbon Sports (headquartered in his parents’ basement) into NIKE, the world’s largest and most famous sports apparel manufacturer and brand. Sojitz, in its Nissho Iwai days, is mentioned throughout the book as the mysterious, powerful, and hard to define trading company that underpins commerce around the world.   ”It’s hard to say exactly what those first Japanese trading companies were. Sometimes they were importers, scouring the globe and acquiring raw materials for companies that didn’t have the means to do so. Other times they were exporters, representing those same companies overseas. Sometimes they were private banks, providing all kinds of companies with easy terms of credit. Other times they were an arm of the Japanese government.” The sogo shosha business model may have been foreign to Knight, but Sojitz’s role as the backbone of business was essential to NIKE as it grew into the Swoosh emblazoned, Air Jordan producing, Fortune 100 ranking $100 billion market cap mega-company we know today. Sojitz extended Nike $1 million in credit in the early 1970s when no one else would, and has supported its operations and ambitions throughout the decades of success that have followed.  While the book is a fascinating account of Knight’s life and his journey with NIKE, Shoe Dog also speaks to Sojitz’s key role in the NIKE story. Long before Sojitz had codified central business tenets into 5 Principles, several recounted scenes make it clear that they have been in the Sojitz DNA since the beginning. A few vignettes stand out: making a business deal on the spot after meeting Knight just once; sliding a check across a table to shocked bank executives to pay off the full amount of NIKE’s debt; imparting wisdom to green but ambitious NIKE staff while taking a dip in a hot spring. These stories make the book an entertaining read for anyone, while for Sojitz employees they elicit pride about Sojitz’s history and provide inspiration for the future. How important was Sojitz? A final quote by Phil Knight says it all: “Thoughts of Asia always lead back to Nissho. Where on earth would we have been without Nissho?” 

What’s in a name? Today kicks off the “Tuesday Trivia” series, where we’ll share interesting facts about our company on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Our first post dives into the meaning behind the word “Sojitz.” If we break down Sojitz into its Japanese syllables, we get “so,” “ji,” and “tsu” (which is simplified to “tz” for easier pronunciation in English). Using Japanese characters called “kanji,” originally derived from Chinese, so-ji-tsu can also be written as 双 (so), meaning double, and 日 (jitsu), meaning sun. So-jitsu, therefore, means “two suns.” So why name the company “Two Suns”? The answer lies in the history of the two storied Japanese trading companies Nissho Iwai (日商岩井) and Nichimen (日綿) that merged to create Sojitz in 2004. You’ll notice that both names have the 日 character, which can be read nichi, jitsu, or hi depending on the kanji with which it is paired. And there you have it—the new entity became 双日 (Sojitz), reflecting Nissho and Nichimen’s legacy in a fresh way. And speaking of the sun, the Japanese word for Japan is Nihon (日本), which also has the sun character…the Land of the Rising Sun! 

Sojitz Corporation of America and Sojitz Aerospace America Corporation have made a joint donation to support the American Red Cross in its relief and recovery efforts responding to the Southern California wildfires. As communities in the Los Angeles area deal with the aftermath of destruction that engulfed entire neighborhoods, we hope that help reaches all of those who need it as quickly as possible. Below: American Red Cross distributing relief supplies in neighborhoods affected by the wildfires. Photo by Jason Colston/American Red Cross American Red Cross Los Angeles Region

Sojitz, Champion Iron, and Nippon Steel Corporation have agreed to work together on a feasibility study and potential development of the Kamistiatusset (Kami) Project in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Through the electric arc furnace method, the Kami Project aims at drastically reducing CO2 emissions while producing Direct Reduction ("DR") grade quality iron ore that is indispensable for steel production. If the partners decide to go through with a final investment decision post-feasibility study, development and construction costs will be shared in accordance with their respective ownership interests. Upon closing these interests would be Champion at 51% equity interest in Kami with minority positions by Nippon (30%) and Sojitz (19%). Nippon and Sojitz would be entitled to an allocation of the iron ore produced from Kami in accordance with their proportional ownership. 

“Trading companies” like Sojitz are famously wide-ranging in their business activities, handling everything “from ramen to missiles” as the old saying goes. Sojitz’s recent transactions in the U.S. certainly seem to support that diversity. In just the last half year alone, we’ve invested in an electrical company, a sushi distributor, and a rail car repair enterprise. But how did we get to where we are now? More generally, how did trading companies evolve? An original manga series traces the story of Sojitz’s birth in the late 1800s and it’s transformation over time. Part 1: The Sojitz Pioneers When Commodore Perry’s fleet arrived in Japan in 1853, the country had almost no modern industries. A relatively short time later Japan had transformed into a powerhouse with a trade surplus. Starting in the Meiji Era, Sojitz’s original companies — Suzuki & Co., Iwai & Co., and Japan Cotton Trading —  led Japan’s industrial revolution with innovative ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit that Sojitz carries in its DNA to this day.  https://lnkd.in/eXtBHMyR https://lnkd.in/eBUZnfyC