Japan Household & Personal Care and Food Manufacturers: Takeaways and feedback from Asia investor visits (July 2026)

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Japan Household & Personal Care and Food Manufacturers: Takeaways and feedback from Asia investor visits (July 2026)

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14 Jul 2026 23:15:40 ET │ 9 pages

Japan Household & Personal Care and Food

Manufacturers

Takeaways and feedback from Asia investor visits (July 2026)

CITI'S TAKE

During our early July Asia investor visits, interest focused on Ajinomoto,

Kikkoman, Kao, and Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan. Meanwhile, interest in Hiroki WatanabeAC

alcoholic beverages/soft drinks, cosmetics, and toiletries names excluding +81-3-6776-8296

Kao was relatively low. We noted slight signs of a recovery in consumer hiroki.watanabe@citi.com

goods sector interest, driven by demand for AI-related stock alternatives

and by declining oil prices. We observed ongoing selection of stocks that

can achieve both continued price revisions and sales volume growth in an

inflationary environment.

AI exposure in consumer goods stocks — The few AI-related themes were a major

discussion topic. For Ajinomoto, discussions centered on ABF’s (Ajinomoto Build-up

Film) competitive advantages, price revisions, and the FY3/27 sales and OPM

outlook. While we view the possibility of implementing simple price increases for

ABF as extremely low, we expect the mix to improve via growth in the weighting of

high-end products, which currently account for c10-15% of sales volume. Many

questions also arose regarding the sales scale and growth potential of

semiconductor cleaning materials within Kao's chemical business. We estimate

limited exposure as these materials represent c10% of total chemical business sales,

and the chemical business accounts for c30% of consolidated sales.

El Niño a new cost-push catalyst — Investors are concerned about the impact of El