Fujiya Co., Ltd. President and CEO Nobuyuki Kawamura

"Bringing smiles to the world through sweets" - Fujiya's thoughts and dreams

Nobuyuki Kawamura, President and CEO of Fujiya Co., Ltd.

■ Profile
Born November 29, 1954 in Tokyo. After graduating from the Faculty of Economics at Tokyo Keizai University in 1977, he joined Fujiya the same year. He has experience in a wide range of fields, including sales, human resources and general affairs, public relations, and marketing. In 2003, he became Executive Officer and General Manager of the Confectionery Business Sales Department, and in 2009, he became Director of the President's Office and General Manager of the General Affairs and Human Resources Department. In 2018, he became Senior Managing Director and General Manager of the Confectionery Business Department, before becoming Representative Director and President in 2019.

Fujiya is known for a variety of popular products, including Milky and Country Ma'am. With an eye on global expansion, the company is a confectionery manufacturer that brings smiles to not only Japan but the world. We spoke to Kawamura, the eighth-generation president, about the struggles and corporate efforts behind the success of the company.

■About my student days

When I was a student, I was a member of the badminton club, and to be honest, I was more passionate about sports than studying. Whenever I had classes, I would be conscious of "how to get credits as efficiently as possible," and I still remember asking my seniors about it. On the other hand, my competitive spirit was fueled by the club members, and I pursued "how can we win?" and continued without slacking off.
Looking back, I would unconsciously set small goals and strive for them in both my school and everyday life. I also narrowed my part-time jobs down to ones that paid well and that I could do during long periods of vacation, allowing me to earn money efficiently all at once. I had a variety of part-time jobs, including night shifts at an automobile factory, delivering doormats, wrapping sweets in paper at a department store, and doing heavy labor. Looking back, I think I ended up working in customer service most of the time.

■Getting a job at a confectionery manufacturer

When it came time to start job hunting, I was mainly thinking about the food industry, which was my original goal. Among them, Fujiya was my first choice. I've loved sweets since I was a child, and I remember being impressed by the Fujiya commercial I saw on TV, which showed a shortcake so big it couldn't fit on the screen. I also wanted to run a coffee shop after retirement, so Fujiya was my first choice, as at the time they had many stores with cafes attached.
I was very honored when I was accepted to Fujiya, a company I had always dreamed of working for. However, I was initially assigned to the beverage sales department, not the sweets or cafe department. This wasn't the department I had originally envisioned, and to be honest, I felt a bit depressed. However, at the time, it was a recession, so I couldn't just give up. I changed my mindset and decided to achieve results in beverage sales, and worked hard to meet my monthly quota. However, as I continued, I inevitably began to feel dissatisfied, so I would submit my complaints over drinks to my superiors as "proposals." I don't know if this bore fruit, but I was later transferred to the beverage product planning department.

■ Integration of two core businesses

Fujiya has two main business divisions: the Western Confectionery Division and the Confectionery Division. The Western Confectionery Division handles products such as shortcake and cream puffs. The Confectionery Division, on the other hand, handles sweets such as chocolate and Milky. However, when I joined the company, even when it came to hiring talent, it was completely separated into "confectionery talent" and there was such a clear wall between the two that even though they were in the same company, it felt like they were two completely different companies. In addition, the Western Confectionery Division and the Confectionery Division were on different floors, so we didn't know each other's faces, we didn't talk to each other - there was almost no interaction.
This situation changed dramatically for me in 1995. At the time, there was a large-scale business restructuring, and I was transferred to the Western Confectionery Division to launch a new project. At the time, it was very rare to have experience working in both businesses, and through this experience, I realized how the Western Confectionery Division and the Confectionery Division operated separately. That's why, when I became president, I set myself the goal of removing even a little of the "wall" between the two.

■ To bring smiles to the world

Fujiya is currently actively expanding globally, with its overseas operations primarily in China and Vietnam. In China, its "lollipops" have proven particularly popular and are also highly sought after locally. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, local business owners expressed concerns that "cookies might be popular," leading to the company starting export sales of its flagship product, Country Ma'am, in 2022, and building a new factory in November 2025 to begin local production. We believe that expanding overseas markets will be a key factor in our future management, and with the opening of our factory in Vietnam as an opportunity, we plan to focus on expanding overseas, primarily into Asian countries.
We also sell our cakes in the United States, where they have also been very well received. In Vietnam, we adjusted the taste and quality to suit local tastes, but in the United States we deliberately offered the same taste as we sell in Japan. This is thanks to advances in freezing technology; originally, when cakes were frozen, there was an issue that the flavor would deteriorate and the cream would melt when thawed, but the development of a new freezing technology called "semi-bread" solved this problem. This technology is also being used in Japan, and we currently have around 280 refrigerated vending machines selling cakes nationwide.

■ I want to work with people who have a positive attitude towards others.

I would love to work with people who can approach everything in a positive way. At work, there are inevitably many unreasonable things and things that don't go as planned. It is at times like these that I think it's important to have a competitive spirit that says, "I absolutely cannot lose," and to have a positive attitude toward things. I myself have had many difficult experiences in my life, but through them I have always cherished the phrase "staring at the good points." This means "consciously focusing on the strengths and excellent points of others, rather than their shortcomings and flaws." A senior colleague taught me this, and I have since used it as a lesson when interacting with people and going about my life.

■Message to university students

When you become a company employee, the time you can spend on yourself is inevitably limited. When I was a student, I learned a lot through part-time jobs and classes, focusing on sports. I hope that you too will learn a lot through experiences that you can only have while you are a student. Please cherish the time that is unique to your student days.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on July 10, 2025 by Chiharu Yamada, second-year student at the University of Information, Management and Innovation

Musashino University third-year student, Yoshimatsu Akina / Information Management and Innovation University first-year student, Tokuhara Kensei / Information Management and Innovation University second-year student, Yamada Chiharu