Our Story

Our Mission

Hikari, the “originator” of premium aquatic diets has been copied by many, but equaled by none. For over 133 years we’ve spent considerable time exploring natural habitats of fish, breeding fish in our own facilities, producing diets in our own factories and researching the impact our diets have over time. These unique insights into the nutritional needs of fish give a competitive advantage no other fish food maker can duplicate and allow us to produce diets that will not only maintain their health, but assist you in keeping your aquarium & pond in top form. Additionally, the complete control of the production process for each of our diets allows us to provide you with the quality you have come to expect from the leader in aquatic nutrition, worldwide. Use Hikari, because you love your aquatic pets as much as they love you!

Hikari—Japan’s most popular brand offers you quality you can depend on!

Kyorin Co., Ltd., maker of Hikari aquatic diets, calls upon over thirteen decades of ornamental fish-breeding experience to bring you the finest premium aquatic diets available today. Hikari is by far the most popular brand in Japan, a nation known for its fine ornamental fish. Today throughout the world, hobbyists with the health of their pet as their first priority, feed them Hikari.

Hikari’s quality is a direct result of the many activities undertaken to understand fish, their eating habits and their dietary requirements. It all starts with exploration to study the actual habitats of tropical fish. This invaluable experience compliments intensive research by our Hikari Aquatic Laboratory staff. Additionally, our world renowned Yamasaki Koi Farm allows us to use our diets first hand, ever noting the growth and coloration characteristics each one offers. We are also the largest shipper of live tropical and marine fish in all of Japan. So, as you can see, we are not producing diets for the sake of selling merchandise, but rather target the health and longevity of the fish. Focusing on bringing about success to the hobbyist through exacting nutrition has allowed us to develop a brand name synonymous with superior quality!

Technology

Utilizing our state-of-the-art facilities, some of which are shown here, Hikari utilizes modern technology to provide you products many have come to depend on. Our exclusive, highly automated factories allow us to control 100% of the manufacturing process. Our experienced staff knows what it takes to maintain our strict quality standards to bring you our world-class diets. Our first hand experience breeding and raising fish, and the scientific data we can collect during this process, give us a clear roadmap for future product improvements and enhancements. Actual experience and physical practice instead of marketing schemes or unproven theory, it’s why Hikari is the market leader in premium aquatic diets!

The state-of-the-art Hikari Aquatic Laboratory

The 10 acre Yamasaki Koi Farm

Our latest Fukusaki Factory was established in November 2007

One of our many state-of-the-art shipping facilities

Computerized Raw Ingredient Storage & Mixing System

Using our first-hand experience as the basis for success!

Investigation

How can you produce a “premium” aquatic diet without knowing what the fish need to live a long and healthy life? There are countless answers required before the first sample diets can even be tested in the Hikari Aquatic Laboratory. We feel it’s our duty to constantly investigate the natural ecology of fish to make the best food for them. Our exploration to Irian Jaya, Lake Malawi in Africa, Guiana highland, the Indian Ocean, the jungle of Southeast Asia and the Holy River Ayeyawady offer us many secrets to fish health, coloration, and long life.

Color differences of each lake suggest different water quality, different fishes might live there. June 1993, Irian Jaya

A wild altum angelfish appeared from the bottom of brown colored water. November 1996, Colombia

Copadichromis cyaneus we caught. April 1994, Malawi

Dancing with Turkana village women. February 1997, Kenya

Catching beautiful royal pleco by hand. February 1996, Venezuela

Challenge

Our reputation is so strong and creative ability so diverse that Hikari was called upon by NASA to produce a special diet for “Space Shuttle” fish keeping experiments. We’ve used this same creativity for all of Hikari diets we’ve brought to market; our disc type food for plecostomus, Algae Wafers™; our ultra-fine, nutrition packed food for tropical fish, Micro Pellets®; our revolutionary probiotics diet; Saki-Hikari™. We readily accept the challenges required to maintain our market leading position for technology, quality, efficacy, product innovation and package design.

Hikari's special diet-An experiment underway aboard the space shuttle

The special diet developed and produced by Hikari for the Space Shuttle experiments

The Challenger Space Shuttle taking off from Florida

Japanese killifish was used in the Space Shuttle experiments

©NASA/JAXA

Hikari Nishikigoi History

Nishikigoi—an export that has defined Japan’s focus on beauty, elegance and quality.

Breeding and keeping Nishikigoi is one of Japan’s most revered and time honored traditions dating back more than two hundred years. Today more than eighty varieties of Nishikigoi are bred and loved by people throughout the world because of their ever changing beauty, high adaptability to different environments, easy interaction with their owners and potential to live a long life.

In 1961, Kamihata Fish Industries Ltd. began its career as a Nishikigoi breeder in southern Japan. In 1964, a “Kamihata Sanke” (a variety of Nishikigoi) bred and raised at the Yamasaki Koi Farm was awarded the championship prize at the All Japan Nishikigoi Contest. Having a long history of making their own diets, Kamihata Fish Industries utilized this knowledge and experience and began exporting their koi foods throughout the world as Hikari brand diets.

Quickly becoming a market leader it was decided ongoing study of fish health and nutrition would be mandatory and the Hikari Aquatic Laboratory was developed. The major focus of this lab is to accumulate breeding and rearing statistics, study ingredient selection and the impact on health and coloration and research new technologies. Kamihata Fish Industries Ltd. is the only company in the world that fuses a history of tradition with modern technology to bring you and the pets you love their best.

As the most popular and trusted brand throughout Japan, Hikari is also known as the finest food among Japanese koi professionals and hobbyists. With a quintessential blend of scientific research, modern technology and over a century of experience, Hikari specialized diets have been the winning diets used by expert koi breeders to consecutively sweep the All Japan Grand Championship since 2003. If you want a diet as rich in time honored tradition as koi themselves, use Hikari!

History of the Kamihata Fish Industry Group

• 1877 — Tozaemon Kamihata inaugurated carp (koi) cultivation.
• 1961 — Shigezo Kamihata established Kamihata Fish Industries Ltd.
• 1964 Kamihata Sanke, a bred variety of Nishikigoi, was awarded the championship prize at the All Japan Nishikigoi Contest, ushering in a new era in Nishikigoi culture.
• 1979 — The Kyorin Food Industries Ltd. was established as the production division for Hikari brand foods. The principal factory was located in Kasai city, Hyogo.
• 1984 — The Kanto Factory of Kyorin Food Industries Ltd. was completed in Kujukuri cho, Chiba.
• 1990 — The Kyushu Factory of Kyorin Food Industries Ltd. was completed in Chikugo City, Fukuoka.
• 1992 — A twin axes extruder was installed at the Kansai Factory of Kyorin Food Industries Ltd. With the expansion of the Kyushu factory, the annual gross production capacity increased to 20, 000 metric tons.
• 1995 — The Kansai Distribution Center was completed providing floor space in excess of 9, 240 m².
• 2001 — The current, ultra modern Hikari Aquatic Laboratory was completed.
• 2002 — The Kanto Distribution Center was completed with the overall area 3, 500 m².
• 2007 — The Fukusaki Factory of Kyorin Food Industries Ltd. was completed in Fukusaki, Hyogo.
• 2011 — 8.9-magnitude quake devastates north-east Japan.