LOHAS popular in Japan

Ayako just gave a tour of the Boulder Food Co-op to about 50 Japanese executives interested in LOHAS.  This event (which included tours of other parts of Boulder and will be hitting California in a couple of days) was organized by Ted Ning, the LOHAS Conference Director and LOHAS Journal Executive Director.  Of course, I didn't know any of that when I went there.  I just knew Ayako was giving a tour of the store to a group of people from the LOHAS Conference. 

It turns out that Ted already knows about Zaadz.  In fact, he was wearing a Zaadz T-shirt underneath his business shirt when I met him!  He said he'll be starting a pod here on Zaadz that will follow a format like that of our I-I, WIE, FLOW, and Sharma pods.  According to Ted, the word "LOHAS" is recognized by about 60% of the Japanese community (and about 30-40% actually know what it means).  It's very popular there compared to the rest of the world. 

Ayako and I had lunch with a few of the executives who are taking part in this gathering.  One of them was the president of a very famous noodle company (Kanaya Foods... Ayako recognized the name right away) in Japan.  We talked about health and sustainability, and I gave them the run-down on Zaadz (Ayako translated).  It's great when large business owners are enthusiastic about changing their products for the better. 

They seemed quite interested in our community here and asked if we will be expanding Zaadz in Japan.  That is something I'd really like to see, especially since the Japanese seem to be so good at advancing new ideas and technologies.  I'll continue to hold the intention.