ASANO Masami

CEO, ASANO NENSHI Co.,LTD.

Born in 1960 in Anpachi-cho, Gifu Prefecture. Mr. Asano graduated from Fukushima University’s Faculty of Education. After working as a teacher for four years, he joined Asano Nenshi Co., Ltd and became the representative director in 1995.

In the 2000s, he was nearly forced to go out of business due to the influence of foreign products, but decided to strive by developing original twisted yarn. The total number of towels shipped using the yarn he developed through trial and error has exceeded 17 million to date, which earned him the “Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award” at the 5th Monodzukuri Nippon Grand Prize in 2013.

Since 2018, Mr. Asano has been participating in a project of a special group led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to revitalize the future of Japan’s textile industry. After being approached by METI to open a factory in Futaba Town, Fukushima Prefecture, he decided to expand his business and grandly opened a new facility in the town in April 2023.

He was elected as a member of the Reconstruction Promotion Committee, a panel of experts within the Reconstruction Agency, and is working to disseminate his efforts for Fukushima reconstruction not only domestically but also overseas through exports of yarn and other activities.