Hajime Takeda
Director, Harakara Welfare Group (a social welfare corporation)

Introduction

Harakara Welfare Group currently runs seven continuous employment support type B workshops, one autonomy training and employment transition workshop, and eleven group homes. The following is an overview of our continuous employment support type B workshops. The figures are actual data from FY 2020.

Harakara Welfare Group was licensed as a social welfare corporation in 1996, and we opened our first licensed facility, Zao Suzushiro, the following year; however, we had been operating its predecessor, an unlicensed workshop, since 1983.

Our basic philosophy about employment support is “making work a pillar of life”. This is because we believe that work is an essential activity for every human, however severe a disability they may have. It is not a question of whether or not they can work: our support is based on thinking about how to make it possible for each person to work.

Our goal is a monthly wage of 70,000 yen. The thinking is that combining this with the disability basic pension gives around 140,000 yen, on which a person should just about be able to live in the local community.

Harakara tofu, winner of a Gold Prize at the National Tofu Show

Harakara tofu, manufactured by Zao Suzushiro, is made from Miyagi Shirome soy beans grown in Miyagi Prefecture.

To begin with, we used American soy beans, but we switched to Japanese soy beans at the request of Harakara associates and customers. The first Japanese soy beans we used were Fuku Yutaka beans from Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu, as the company which handles the machinery, raw materials, and packaging of our tofu advised us that these beans were suited to tofu manufacture. The result was delicious tofu. However, bad weather in the Kyushu region one year led to a poor harvest of Fuku Yutaka beans, and we were unable to source them. This was the reason we came to use local Miyagi Shirome soy beans.

Harakara tofu is distinguished by the rich flavour of the soy beans. For this reason, we made the soy milk more concentrated. However, using concentrated soy milk places a burden on the manufacturing machinery. The usable life of the machinery is shortened. Moreover, we have used brine (magnesium chloride) as a coagulant, which requires skilled craftsmanship. There are various different steps to making tofu, from washing the raw materials, the soy beans, in water to producing the final product. The most important of these is the process of adding brine to the soy milk to solidify it. This step determines the quality of the tofu. The day’s temperature, the condition of the beans, the mental state of the person making the tofu, and other factors subtly influence the result. However, it is impossible to quantify all of this. It cannot be measured by machines. In the end, calculations based on experience and intuition are the decisive factors.

There is no simple way to make tofu. We threw ourselves into a process of trial and error. Manufacturing delicious tofu of consistent quality on a large scale was an extremely difficult task. We still have trouble with this. The quality of the soy beans also varies from year to year. Despite all this, “Harakara Hiden no Kinu” silken tofu was awarded the Gold Prize in the “Tofu Heated in its Pack” category at the National Tofu Show in September 2018. Our firm tofu was also introduced to the whole country on an 8 a.m. television programme in March the same year. 

Why we began making tofu: making products which will sell

When we set up our first unlicensed workshop, in 1983, the work carried out there was making pottery. There were three reasons why we chose to make pottery. The first was that if you make a mistake with the raw materials of pottery, you can try again and again, as many times as you like, until you fire the clay. The second was that pottery does not have an expiry date. The third was that there are tasks which even people with severe disabilities can carry out.

Trying out this plan showed these three points to be true. However, we hit a dead end when it came to sales. The same person will not buy the same thing again. Since there was no expiry date, we carried on making pottery whether or not it sold. We ended up with a mountain of stock. We became unable to pay the wages which were the goal of the project. We struggled to finance our operations.

The idea which we came up with was purchasing and reselling. We promptly set up a Saturday market in front of the workshop. We sold vegetables and fruit from local farmers, and processed goods and other items from regular businesses – anything which we thought would sell. We put out a call to say that we would sell anything except people. At that time, there was one item which stood out from the rest in terms of sales growth. This was tofu. “Let’s make tofu”, we thought – this was what prompted us to start making tofu.   　

When we tried to start making tofu at our fourth unlicensed workshop, in October 1993, various people warned us against it, saying things like “It’s hard to make tofu – you’d better give up on the idea”. It is true that making tofu and making pottery are polar opposites. Tofu has a short shelf life, and if you make a mistake at any stage of the production process, it all comes to nothing. The reason why we took on the task of making tofu, despite all this, was the sales performance of tofu at our Saturday market. We considered the manufacture of products that would sell as an essential element in the income security of people with disabilities. Should we make something that was easy, or something that was difficult but would sell well? The answer was clear: we switched from pottery to tofu.

At first, we relied on volunteers to carry out the sales. The volunteers took orders, delivered the tofu, and collected the money. Workshop staff and family members of the users were among the volunteers. Later, we asked local supermarkets and so on to sell our tofu. We also started wholesale distribution to groups and facilities for people with disabilities outside the prefecture.  

Twenty or so years later, we now supply 25 shops, including major local supermarkets. We have been able to move on from reliance on volunteers. One shop has even set up a “Harakara Corner”.

Making bread from Japanese wheat and Miyagi soybean grounds

Okara (soybean grounds) bread is a product jointly developed by Harakara Welfare Group and a private business.

We used to dispose of okara, which is generated in large quantities as a byproduct of manufacturing tofu, as industrial waste. We wanted to make good use of this okara, and so we asked a private bread manufacturer with whom we did business to produce the bread. 

If you mix okara into bread dough, it usually does not rise, producing bread which is similar in consistency to rice cakes. By adjusting the proportion of okara mixed with the dough, the proving method, and the exact temperature of the oven, we succeeded in creating bread which did not lose its shape, was pleasantly textured, and yet was low in calories and rich in fibre. Flash-freezing the finished product enabled long-term storage (six months when frozen). Upon defrosting, it returns to its freshly-baked texture. Its shelf life is two weeks after defrosting. There are five flavours: plain, mashed sweet bean paste, chocolate, cream, and sweet green pea paste. The package contains a deoxygenating agent.

Okara bread with a shelf life of four days, made for school lunches, is eaten by the students of 23 elementary and junior high schools in four towns. It was popular with the children, who told their parents, and eventually, local supermarkets started selling it. It is now on the shelves of ten supermarkets belonging to the four major local chains. Production cannot keep up with demand, and so we supply them once a week. A salesperson told us that there are people who buy 10 or 20 buns at a time. 35 shops in the prefecture now sell this or our okara bread with a long shelf life.　

Conclusion

Harakara tofu made from Miyagi soy beans and okara bread made from the okara generated in the process of manufacturing Harakara tofu enjoy an enduring popularity. Harakara okara is also used in karinto confectionery and cookies. If it were thrown away, it would be industrial waste, raising the unit cost of the tofu; by putting the okara to good use, it lowers the unit cost of the tofu and adds value to the bread. Harakara okara has, with the addition of one syllable, become “otakara”, a valuable asset.

Okara bread, which makes good use of okara. This product was jointly developed with a private business.

The “Harakara Welfare Group Corner” in one shop. The area to the right of the partition is our corner.