New Meat Value
OUR STORY
A local butcher shop that has been in business for more than half a century. The beginning.
OUR STORY

Iwate-machi, Iwate Prefecture is known as the town at 40 degrees north latitude. In this land blessed with abundant nature and food, the current chairman opened the business as “FUGANE butcher store” in 1965. As the town’s butcher shop, it has been a favorite of the local people.
The inherited technology and pioneering spirit for a new world.

The current president, Shinji Fugane, has been helping out at the restaurant since he was a child in such an environment. “I was able to slice and pack meat by the time I was in the fifth grade,” he says, and naturally acquired the know-how of meat while helping out at the restaurant. After graduating from college, he worked in the kitchens of a hotel and restaurant in Hokkaido and a Japanese restaurant in Morioka, before returning to his hometown to take over the family business at the age of 29.
At first, he was in charge of product development for boxed lunches and prepared foods sold at local roadside stations and planning for opening events at department stores in the Kanto area, but gradually his interest turned to expanding the business throughout Japan and around the world.
Japan's first beef cured ham is born.
CECINA

It was during this time that I came across “Cecina,” a cured beef ham originating from the León region in northern Spain. At the time, I was racking my brains trying to figure out how to convey the appeal of Iwate Shorthorn Wagyu beef to a wider audience.


Iwate Shorthorn Wagyu is a rare breed of cattle, with less than 1% of the total number of cattle raised in Japan, most of which are produced in Iwate.
The representative of Iwate Shorthorn Wagyu Beef Breeders’ Association was concerned about the decline of the livestock industry, which has a long history as a local industry, and thought that by using Iwate Shorthorn Wagyu to make Cecina, he could protect the “landscape with Iwate Shorthorn Wagyu”.
For the future of local livestock production and food culture.
NEW Meat Value

Under the concept of “New Meat Value,” our greatest mission at Niku no Fugane is to preserve the livestock and meat culture that has been nurtured in the region for generations, and to pass this value on to the next generation.
Straightforward and dedicated. We will continue to work as one to be loved by the people of the region and to introduce the new attractiveness of meat to the whole of Japan and to the world.