We skillfully harness the action of these three kinds of microorganisms to manufacture Kikkoman Soy Sauce. However, there remain aspects of the action of living microorganisms which have yet to be scientifically clarified, meaning that there are elements of this process which rely on our experience alone.

All living organisms possess genetic information called the genome, which is often described as “blueprint” for life. We embarked on the challenge to sequence the genome of the microorganisms involved in soy sauce brewing with the reasoning that by sequencing (1) and understanding the characteristics of these genomes we might gain a scientific grasp of the particular means of action of these microorganisms.

We cooperated with the Noda Institute for Scientific Research, University of Tokyo, and Tokyo Institute of Technology to read the A. sojae genome using a next-generation genome sequencing (2) technology. Six months after embarking on this endeavor we had successfully sequenced the whole genome and presented the outcomes of our efforts in a scientific paper.
By sequencing the genome, we were able to confirm that A. oryzae and A. sojae is not capable of producing mycotoxins at gene level, and thus obtained the evidence supporting the safety for human consumption.

There is little to be gained by the mere act of sequencing a genome. Genome information is of vast scales similar to big data, and bioinformatics technologies are needed to mine the useful information for particular purposes. At present, we use bioinformatics to analyze the genome information of the three kinds of microorganisms involved in the brewing process for soy sauce, to systematically elucidate the properties of these microorganisms and their role in soy sauce brewing. Our wish is to uncover the science behind soy sauce brewing to improve our products to be loved even more by people throughout the globe.