* Okinawa Prefecture Tourism Policy Division, Culture, Tourism and Sports Department, Okinawa Prefecture, April 2020, “Okinawa Prefecture Visitors Statistics Overview for 2020”section, and can make bags of different materials on the front and back sides. The zipper is usually fastened by ul-trasonic waves, but the company uses heat to fasten the zipper.“We have learned over the past year that there are many zipper bags in Okinawa. We knew that we could not increase the number of customers without making these bags, so we installed a fully automatic tape-insertion pouch making machine as our second machine in May of this year. However, bag making is difficult, and we are still in the pro-cess of practicing. If this machine works well, we will be able to increase our business,” said Uehara.Sale to prefectural residentsTourism is a major pillar of Okinawa’s industry. The num-ber of visitors to Okinawa reached 9,469,200* in 2019, and to encourage further tourism demand, a second runway at Naha Airport opened in March 2020. However, planes arriv-al would soon plummet due to the impact of the coronavirus infection.“At one point as many as 10 million tourists visited Oki-nawa, but they all vanished, so there were no more tour-ism-related jobs or events. However, thanks to the shift in the tourism industry from confections for tourists in paper container packages to soft-wrapped individual packages for purchase by merchandisers in the prefecture, we also received orders for the outer packaging of Gassho-fold (Japanese wrapping) and three-sided seal packaging,” said Vice President Yoshimura. The company now also receives orders for the packaging of frozen gyoza (Chinese dump-lings) and other products, mainly confectionaries.The company’s new flexo work has increased the num-ber of food manufacturers, food processing companies, and other business partners. “We would be happy if we could expand our business to include offset printing of fly-ers, catalogs, and promotional items, taking advantage of the appeal of our flexible packaging capabilities within the prefecture. However, we can’t do bag-making and other processing without studying the filling machines and oth-er equipment they have, so we have started talking closely with our customers about the details. I was also surprised at the strict hygiene control of a factory that handles food products. As a factory that handles flexible packaging, we are required to manage the same way, and we will continue to be thorough in our efforts,” commented Vice President Yoshimura.Finally, flexible packaging is available in OkinawaUntil now, the prefecture’s packaging-related work has been ordered out of the prefecture, so there are high expec-tations from the local community for Kindai Bijutsu’s entry into the flexible packaging market. “We have the government’s interest, and also experi-enced firsthand the support from the locals of remote is-lands. We have already received over a dozen repeat orders from one manufacturer. We have also received requests for flexo printing from our competitors,” said Vice President Yoshimura.Users who have seen the flexographic finish response, “No problem compared to previous packaging materials.”Aiming for sales of 500 million yen in 4 to 5 yearsRegarding goals for the sale of flexo, Vice President Yoshimura said, “At first, we thought it would be possible to achieve 500 million yen in sales in three years. However, due to the impact of Corona and delays in the installment of equipment, our sale speed has slowed down, so we are now targeting 500 million yen in four to five years. We ex-pect the market for packaging materials in the prefecture to grow to several billion yen, so the key is whether we can keep up.”Regarding future prospects, President Oshiro said, “The ability to manufacture and process flexible packaging in the prefecture has made it possible for us to respond to small-lot production and short delivery times. We are receiving support from many quarters, especially from confectionery and food product manufacturers in the prefecture. In par-ticular, there have been high expectations for more than a year for the pouch making machine with seal zipper, which has been in operation since July. Our company is still in its infancy in terms of technology and quality. More than ever, our first priority is to stabilize quality, and we will enhance the quality aspect of our products so that our customers can be assured of our quality. We also aim to be involved in product development together with our customers in coop-eration with the planning and design departments.”10
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