Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd.

This is not a story about Yakult ceasing to be a Japanese company. The system began in Japan: the drink in 1935, Yakult Ladies in 1963, and the first overseas operation in Taiwan in 1964. It then spread through a local-production, local-sales model. In FY2026, overseas food-and-beverage sales of ¥240.0bn exceeded Japan's ¥229.6bn, while overseas operating profit of ¥36.3bn exceeded Japan's ¥27.7bn. About 38 million dairy bottles are consumed each day across 40 countries and regions, supported by roughly 80,000 Yakult Ladies worldwide. Behind the small bottle familiar in Japan is now an overseas business larger than the domestic one on several key measures.