Kirin Group's Environmental Vision 2050

Kirin Central Research Institute conducts research centered on health science. By combining our diverse strengths and technologies with those in other fields, we promote open innovation and create opportunities for new businesses and services.
Our strengths include: “raw material cultivation and production” technology, of which “mass plant propagation technology” is a representative research achievement; technology for “identifying and evaluating substances with health functions,” which has discovered a constituent of aged hops that reduces body fat and a constituent of camembert cheese that improves memory function; technology for the “production of functional substances,” which uses microorganisms such as E. coli and mold to ferment and produce raw materials for pharmaceuticals and bioactive substances; and “advanced constituent analysis” technology, which uses a combination of structural analysis called the crystalline sponge method, instrumental analysis, and information analysis to identify target constituents in samples and identify their structures in detail. The Kirin Central Research Institute also successfully produced Lactococcus lactis (LC) Plasma, which we registered with Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) last year for the first time in Japan as a Food with Function Claims (FFC) for the immune system.

The Institute for Packaging Innovation develops and evaluates technologies related to packaging lines and packaging and containers used in the Kirin Group’s alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages businesses. The Institute for Packaging Innovation engages in activities such as the in-house development of containers and packaging, as one of the few research laboratories of its scale owned by a global alcoholic beverage company. Based on the technologies it has accumulated over many years in areas such as glass bottles, cans, PET bottles, cardboard cartons, and other paper packaging, the Institute for Packaging Innovation utilizes AI technology, kansei (affective) engineering, and other technologies to provide the necessary technical assistance to bring products to market, and create technical “seeds” that enrich the lives of our customers and society through new containers and packaging.
The Institute is as well equipped as a small plant, with machinery to fill glass bottles and aluminum cans with beer, as well as equipment to attach labels to bottles.
We are also trying to solve problems related to plastics. We are working to develop technology that enables the stable recycling of plastic containers such as PET bottles. The number of times plastics can be recycled is limited because their quality generally deteriorates after repeated recycling owing to impurities. At Kirin, we are working to develop technologies for high-purity recycling and “chemical recycling” based on the chemical decomposition, purification, and repolymerization of PET bottles, as part of our aim to create a “society that continuously recycles plastics.”

As a manufacturer, production equipment is an essential part of our business, and it is vital that we possess the engineering capabilities to quickly develop facilities that are capable of efficiently producing quality products while being eco-friendly and comfortable for our workers. The Kirin Group has set up engineering organizations within each operating company to ensure that our production facilities are supported by engineers with a thorough understanding of manufacturing processes, production technology, and maintenance techniques.The Kirin Group owns Kirin Engineering, a general engineering company specializing in the construction of plants producing beer, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and other products. This company is engaged in the large-scale construction, expansion, and remodeling of production facilities for both for Kirin Group companies in Japan and overseas and companies outside the Group. The capabilities of these engineering organizations are strengths of the Kirin Group, and support environmental measures of our business domains, ranging from food and beverages to pharmaceuticals.