Founded in 1946, Kyokuyo Co., Ltd. is a trading company specializing in paper and packaging-related products, including food packaging materials, industrial supplies, and printing solutions. One of the company’s key strengths is its ability to manage the entire value chain—from raw materials to finished products—while maintaining a proposal-driven development system based on a customer-centric approach at every stage of the process. As it responds to an increasingly diverse range of market demands, Kyokuyo is committed not only to meeting customer needs but also to creating new value. The company continually takes on a wide variety of challenges to solve customers’ issues.
In this article, we spoke with Mr. Suga and Mr. Ohashi of the Chemical Products Sales Department I, Section II, who work on the front lines addressing customer requests about the importance and visualization of temperature control in food container development.

From left: Mr. Ohashi and Mr. Suga

Providing End-to-End Solutions from Upstream to Downstream

Mr. Ohashi: "As a member of the Oji Paper Group, Kyokuyo Co., Ltd. handles a wide range of paper-related products. Within the Chemical Products Sales Department I, we primarily target end users such as food manufacturers and convenience store operators, providing development, design, and proposal-based sales of plastic food packaging containers. We procure everything involved in the process—from raw materials through to finished products—and handle sales ourselves. This integrated approach enables us to deliver the quality, cost competitiveness, and functionality our customers require."

Mr. Suga: "As an example of the finished products we work with, you may be familiar with the plastic cups used for iced café beverages sold at convenience stores."

The Chemical Products Sales Department I consists of two sections: Section I, which handles raw materials and plastic sheets, and Section II, which is responsible for the development, design, and proposal of container products. The overall business flow is as follows:

• Plastic raw materials (resins)
• Sheet extrusion manufacturers
• Sheet sales
• Thermoforming manufacturers
• Sales of molded products
• End users (food manufacturers, convenience stores, agricultural cooperatives, restaurants, and prepared-food businesses)

Identifying Trends Early and Proposing Solutions to Customers

One of the unique aspects of Section II, which primarily handles finished container products, is its ability to identify emerging trends in food packaging and proactively propose solutions to customers

Mr. Ohashi: "If I were to highlight a recent trend in the frozen food market, it would be the growing demand for single-serving meals since the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen an increase in products designed to provide a complete meal on a single tray. From a packaging perspective, before the pandemic, many frozen food products came in relatively small containers, such as those used for shumai dumplings, with heating times typically ranging from one to two minutes. However, if you look at the cooking instructions for these single-tray frozen meals, you will notice that microwave heating times have increased significantly, often requiring six to seven minutes."

Temperature management has always been an important consideration in food packaging. However, as heating times have become longer, its significance has evolved considerably.

Mr. Suga: "As containers have become larger, the variety of food items included in a single package has increased. With more components on a single tray, differences in the required heating time for each food item naturally become more pronounced. To address this challenge, we are working to standardize heating times by optimizing the design of the container itself.

Despite its pocket-sized design, the Flir C8 delivers highly accurate visualization of temperature variations. The team notes that as they continued to advance their efforts, one capability proved indispensable: the ability to visualize heat. Previously, the team relied on infrared thermometers, which measure temperature at a single point. To identify temperature variations or potential cold spots, operators had to determine measurement locations based largely on experience and accumulated know-how.

Mr. Suga: "Take these shumais, for example. Based on experience, we can generally predict which areas are likely to become cold spots. However, because temperatures have to be measured one point at a time, the process was extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming."

Transforming Individual Know-How into Organizational Knowledge Through Visualization

Until recently, knowledge regarding how different foods absorb and retain heat had been accumulated by individual employees through hands-on experience. Much of this expertise was based on intuition and practical know-how developed over time.

As a result, it was difficult to share this knowledge across the organization or pass it on effectively to the next generation of employees, creating challenges in both knowledge transfer and standardization.

Mr. Suga: "With the Flir C8, we can instantly and clearly identify temperature variations across a product, and it can automatically detect cold spots as well. Another highly useful feature is that the Flir C8 captures a visible image from the same angle at the same time as the thermal image. This makes it much easier to understand exactly what is being observed when sharing the results with colleagues later. in fact, there was one product in this field that made a particularly strong impression on me. It was a frozen chilled Chinese noodle product designed so that some ice remains even after microwave heating, allowing consumers to enjoy the noodles while they are still cold. I was amazed not only by the precise temperature control achieved within the container, but also by the ingenuity of the concept itself. My immediate reaction was that this was the kind of package that could never have been developed without the aid of a thermal imaging camera. While we sometimes refer to academic papers and technical literature, those sources alone are not enough. Ultimately, you need to see the actual temperature distribution through real-world measurements. That is why the Flir C8 has become an indispensable tool for us.

We place great emphasis on consultative sales that delve deeply into our customers’ challenges. In proposal-based sales activities, practical experience and accumulated know-how are extremely important. At the same time, this creates a tendency for knowledge to become dependent on individuals. By using the Flir C8 throughout the company, we hope to visualize that expertise and share it as an organizational asset. Doing so will help us build a more agile organization capable of adapting to changes in the business environment while strengthening our overall competitiveness."