Ajinomoto
Japanese food and biotechnology company
Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (味の素株式会社, Ajinomoto kabushiki gaisha; Japanese pronunciation: [a.(d)ʑi.noꜜ.mo.to]) is a Japanese multinational food and biotechnology corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, frozen foods, beverages, sweeteners, amino acids, insulating films, and pharmaceuticals. Aji-No-Moto (味の素, "essence of taste") is the trade name for the company's original monosodium glutamate (MSG) product, the first of its kind, since 1909. The corporation's head office is located in Chūō, Tokyo. As of 2024, Ajinomoto operates in 31 countries worldwide and employs an estimated 34,862 people. Its yearly revenue in 2024 is around ¥1.53 trillion JPY or $10.61 billion USD.
History
1907–1944: Origins and expansion
Ajinomoto Co., Inc. was created in 1908 as a subsidiary of Suzuki Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which was founded in May 1907 by Saburōsuke Suzuki II and Kikunae Ikeda. Ajinomoto was created to let Ikeda, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, sell monosodium glutamate (MSG) seasoning made from wheat that he invented and patented. He created the seasoning after discovering that MSG was the source of a flavor that he called umami. In April 1909, Ajinomoto presented Ikeda's seasoning under the brand name "AJI-NO-MOTO" at a new product exhibition event in Tokyo, and began selling the product the next month.
The public source identifies “Ajinomoto” as japanese food and biotechnology company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ajinomoto, Japanese and food.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q412826. VIAF identifies the subject as 130205556. The Library of Congress control number is n82050604. Authority coordinates are 35.677, 139.773. 5 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 2024, 1907 and 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ajinomoto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.