West Japanese-style soy sauce, called shoyu, has been a well-known condiment for over 300 years. Kikkoman is the largest shoyu manufacturing company in the world, and "the one most responsible for introducing shoyu to the West".Founded contemporarily in 1917, with the merger of eight family-owned companies, Kikkoman is based in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Those companies were founded as early as 1603 by the Mogi and Takanashi families. Kikkoman was originally known as the "Noda Shoyu Corporation" before 1940, when they adopted a single nationwide brand name.
