Profile

Over 30 years devoted single-mindedly to Eucommia—from commercializing Tochu tea to industrializing Eucommia elastomer as a new material.

Story

Nakazawa Yoshihisa, trained in agriculture, joined Hitachi Zosen in 1987 just as the company diversified amid the shipbuilding slump that followed the Plaza Accord, and was tasked with developing Eucommia health tea. He successively took charge of flavor improvement, quality assurance, and product launch, personally experienced the great Tochu tea boom triggered by television coverage in 1993–94, and turned Eucommia-leaf extract into Japan's first blood-pressure FOSHU product, 'Tochu 120', which received functional-label approval from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

After the tea business was transferred wholesale to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical in 2003–05, he alone stayed at Hitachi Zosen to persist with Eucommia polymer research, entering Osaka University on secondment to establish the Hitz Collaborative Research Laboratory. He elucidated the mechanism by which Eucommia produces ultra-high-molecular-weight trans-polyisoprene and developed a 'one-solvent method' achieving purity above 99%, commercializing Tochu Elastomer from 2017. The media call him 'Dr. Tochu'; he calls his own career 'a life devoted single-mindedly to Eucommia.'

Milestones

• 1987 Joined Hitachi Zosen and threw himself into Tochu tea development
• July 1990 Hitachi Zosen's Tochu tea beverage went on sale
• October 1997 FOSHU No. 1 'Tochu 120' was released
• 2000–2002 Conducted postdoctoral research in Norman Lewis's laboratory at Washington State University, USA
• 2012 Became director of the Hitz Collaborative Research Laboratory at Osaka University (specially appointed professor)
• April 2017 The 'Tochu Elastomer' biopolymer was officially launched

Key Contributions

• Joining Hitachi Zosen in 1987, he immediately joined the biotechnology division's Tochu tea business, led the 1990 launch of Tochu tea beverages, and saw annual sales reach the ten-billion-yen scale during the 1993–94 television-driven boom
• 'Tochu 120', whose development he led, became in 1997 Japan's first Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU) approved as 'suitable for people with mildly elevated blood pressure' (FOSHU No. 1 in the blood-pressure category)
• In 1994 established an overseas joint-venture Tochu tea factory in Chengdu, China (Sichuan MEHECO, Hitachi Zosen, and Marubeni)
• After the tea business was transferred to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, he persisted with Eucommia research and developed 'Tochu Elastomer' through industry–academia collaboration with Osaka University, commercializing the biopolymer in 2017 for golf balls, 3D printing, cosmetic containers, and more
• Since 2016 he has served as specially appointed professor of the China Rubber Industry Association and specially appointed researcher at Northwest A&F University, promoting Sino-Japanese Eucommia industry cooperation