Tokyo-based alternative meat venture company Next Meats Co is planning to start construction of an eco-friendly production facility scheduled for completion next summer.
 
Next Meats specializes in the research and development of Japanese-style alternative meat products and is known for commercializing vegan Japanese barbecue meat analogues. The company also developed an alternative egg product, the NEXT Egg 1.0, and recently launched the NEXT Yakiniku Short-Ribs in the U.S.
 
In December 2020 the company announced a partnership with Toyota-Tsusho Corporation, and was listed on the American OTCBB in January of 2021.
 
The new “NEXT Factory” will be dedicated to alternative protein production and include an R&D lab. It will be located in Niigata, Japan, which is the hometown of Ryo Shirai, one of the company’s two co-founders.
 
In announcing construction of the facility, founders Hideyuki Sasaki and Ryo Shirai said the factory will incorporate DX systems as well as solar panels and other sustainable technologies.
 
By building the NEXT Factory, Sasaki and Shirai aim to further stabilize the global supply chain of Next Meats products while lowering retail costs and strengthening the company’s R&D capacities.
 
Next Meats is working with a local construction firm that uses materials sourced from the area, and is scheduled to co-produce a new product with Kameda Seika—a prominent snack manufacturer in Japan, which is from Niigata.
 
The company also signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Nagaoka University of Technology, to study epigenetics and its new applications in developing alternative meat products. Next Meats plans to research various types of alternative proteins with an aim to replace all animal meats by 2050.