From Shinkansen Icon to Global Sensation: Bringing Japan’s Premium Ice Cream Experience to the World

Sujahta Meiraku aims to export the premium quality and unique experience of its signature “Shinkansen ice cream” through tourism-driven retail and experiential dessert concepts worldwide.

- BY DANIEL DE BOMFORD AND KYANN EDOUARD

For many travelers to Japan, the temples, trains and cuisine represent a place steeped deeply in rituals. Some are as old as the ancient grounds on which they are practiced; others are more recent. An ice cream on the Shinkansen is one such ritual. Sujahta High Quality Ice Cream, nicknamed “Shinkansen Sugoi Katai Ice Cream” (amazingly hard Shinkansen ice cream), has been served on the Shinkansen for over 30 years and is renowned for its firm texture. Haruo Hibi, the president of Sujahta Meiraku Co., Ltd., said that many visitors to Japan want to ride the Shinkansen and that many of them also want to try the ice cream. “The fact that memories of eating our ice cream on the train are spreading overseas is very encouraging to us and makes us feel strongly that there is real export potential,” he said.

The proof is in the pudding. When JR Tokai discontinued the snack cart on the busy Tokyo-to-Shin-Osaka Shinkansen due to staff shortages, ice cream sales were expected to plummet. The company compensated with vending machines, and, to its surprise, sales reached 120 percent of the previous year’s.

JR Tokai went a step further by installing freezer showcases in train stations. Sujahta Meiraku isn’t relying on nostalgia; its ice cream became a part of the ritual of traveling on the bullet train.