Agar

choi

Yoko Kubota, Japan's Most Powerful Follow the Sensei of Seaweed; Ina Food chief counsels Toyota boss, others; Great agar bubble's lesson. Wall Street Journal, Sept 1, 2015 (front page)
www.wsj.com/articles/to-whom-do- ... -seaweed-1441069219
("the health benefits of agar, which is low in calories and rich in fiber")

Note:
(a) Yōko KUBOTA  久保田 洋子
(b) "INA, Japan—  * * * where does Toyota go when it needs management advice?  To this mountain town, where a little company called Ina Food Industry Co 伊那食品工業株式会社[, world’s largest agar maker,] makes a living turning seaweed into a gelatin-like substance called agar."

Ina  長野県 伊那市

(c) "A squishy staple of Japan’s cuisine for four centuries that can be found as a vegetarian substitute for gelatin in the US, agar can be pressed into noodles or mixed with beans and sugar to make a sweet confection. For non-Japanese, it takes some getting used to, and so does the management philosophy of Ina Food’s chief executive-guru, who is followed by many of Japan’s most powerful leaders despite his anonymity abroad.  The agar man, Hiroshi TSUJAKOSHI 塚越 寛, 77 years old"
(i) Japanese English dictionary
* kanten 寒天 【かんてん】 (n): "(1) freezing weather; (2) agar-agar"
* kanzarasgi 寒晒し 【かんざらし】 (n): "exposure to cold"
* tokoroten ところてん 《心太; ところ天; 心天》 (n): "{food} gelidium jelly strips (made from agar-agar)"
* neru 練る(P); 煉る 【ねる】 (v): "to thicken into a paste (stirring over a flame)"
  (besides Chinese meanings: to drill, to refine)
  ("neru" is a verb whereas "neri" a noun)
* リストラ (n): "(abbr[eviation]) (See リストラクチュアリング [katakana for 'restructuring']) (corporate) restructuring; downsizing"

(ii) agar
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar
(or agar-agar; chemically it is agarose [made of galactose 半乳糖]; agarose "forms the supporting structure in the cell walls of certain species of algae, and [ ] is released on boiling")

Quote: “Agar was discovered around 1658 in Japan (where it is called kanten, coined from the phrase kan-zarashi tokoroten or ‘cold-exposed agar’) by MINO Tarōzaemon 美濃 太郎左衛門, an innkeeper who was said to have discarded some surplus seaweed soup and noticed that it gelled later after a winter night's freezing.

* There was a 美濃国, which was about where 岐阜県 美濃市 is located.
* Though agar and gelatin (key ingredient of Jell-O) taste similar, the compositions differ. Gelatin is a hydrolyzed product of collagen.
(A) The first photo in this Wiki page displays “mizu yōkan.”
* zh.wikipedia.org under the page 羊羹 states,”羊羹主要依據寒天的用量分成「煉羊羹」及「水羊羹」兩種種類.”
* ja.wikipedia.org under the same says, "寒天の添加量が多くしっかりとした固さの煉羊羹（ねりようかん）と、寒天が少なく柔らかい水羊羹（みずようかん）がある。"

rough translation: Add more agar, and one gets solid 煉羊羹; add less, soft 水羊羹.
  

choi

(d) "Mr Tsukakoshi offers a riposte, in a book titled 'Tree-Ring Management'—so-called because a tree steadily adds one ring a year, rather than expanding and contracting erratically. 'Trees keep growing even when the weather is bad,” Mr Tsukakoshi writes. 'Companies should be like that, too. You have to keep growing little by little, even if the pace is slow.' "

books:
(i) in English:
Hiroshi Tsukakoshi (Translated by Hart Larrabee), Tree-Ring Management; Take the long view and grow your business slowly. Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture 出版文化産業振興財団, March 2015.
(ii) in Japanese:
塚越 寛, リストラなしの「年輪経営」; いい会社は「遠きをはかり」ゆっくり成長. 光文社, Sept 11, 2014.

The title リストラなしの「年輪経営」 means: tree-ring management without restructuring.

(e) "Ina Food offers free agar at the annual Kanten Papa festival in Ina, served as tokoroten, a clear, cold noodle dish dipped in sauce, or as anmitsu, a dessert with agar-based jelly, sweet red bean sauce and fruits."
(i) Check (c)(i) for definition of tokoroten.
(ii) tokoroten
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokoroten
("Flavorings vary from region to region, and can include variations of vinegar, soy sauce, hot pepper, or sesame")

The ja.wikiedia.org, in a page titled ところてん, says, "関西では黒蜜をかけて単体又は果物などと共に"

rough translation: In Kansei, brown sugar 黒蜜 [or 黒砂糖] is sprinkled on as a stand-alone or together with fruits.  [So, it can be sweet.]