Kirin Brewery – Factory Tour
Kirin Brewery is known as one of the leading beer makers in Japan. It is one of the subsidiaries of the Kirin Holdings Company which is an integrated beverages company that engages in the manufacture and sales of not only alcoholic but also non-alcoholic beverages as well as pharmaceutical and bio-chemical products. Kirin operates in eight countries and is a member of the Mitsubishi Group.
Corporate Information
- Company: Kirin Brewery Company, Limited
- Foundation: 1907
- Location: Headquartered in Tokyo
- Main Business: Manufacture and sales of alcohol beverages
Kirin Brewery
Kirin Breweries is one of the leading brewery companies in Japan. Its history dates back to 1885 when its foreign-owned forerunner company called Japan Brewery Company was established in Yokohama in 1885. Three years later, the brewery started selling beer named Kirin Beer. In 1907, the Kirin Brewery Company was established as a separate Japanese legal entity with the financial support from Japanese investors including the president of Mitsubishi at that time.
The company now has nine brewery plants across Japan. Kirin has an unwavering commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. They have established a sophisticated system allowing tracing of their products and ingredients throughout the supply chain, including through the entire production process.
The tour includes a guided walk through the production process from barley-mashing to packaging. The tour also features a video presentation about the company, exhibits of different beer ingredients, and for those thirsty at the end of the visit, finishes with a tasting of their signature beer.

Khafji, Saudi Arabia
As I have had a previous unpleasant experience with lean training, I was worried about how much I could gain from this tour. At the end of this magnificent experience I can confirm that Shinka Management has exceeded my expectations. They are so organized, dedicated, helpful and generous. The tour was based on very-well known…
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Shinka Lean Management Tour was a great experience, with group members from across the globe. A combination of classroom, hands-on and site visit learning provided good insight into lean principles. The tour was very well organised, ran smoothly and was a pleasure to be a part of.
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Denver, Colorado, United States
This was my third visit to Japan with Shinka Management and it is difficult for me to find the right words to express my gratitude for such a well-organized tour and my appreciation for the high quality and on-target content. In my previous visits I received very valuable information related to continuous improvement principles and…
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Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Excellent, from preparing the tour group on do’s and don’ts to guidance on what to watch out for every step of the way. Cannot recommend this enough if you are looking to learn how to resolve issues, and want to understand the lean approach from philosophy to theory to practice. Thank you very much, Paul,…
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Bowhill, South Australia, Australia
Paul and Ben from Shinka Management need to be commended for the tour that they ran in Japan. The experience has enlightened and energised me to intensify the lean efforts within our organisation. The tour was packed full of knowledge building as well as relationship building with other participants all whilst experiencing a cultural treat…
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Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
I would like to thank the Shinka team. They have been doing very well since day one of the program notification. Their work is a demonstration of the lean principles of standard work and Plan, Do, Check and Action (PDCA). The Shinka team arranged factory visits to various tiers of the automotive industry and building…
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The Shinka Management Lean Japan Tour is a professional development program run several times annually. The program includes a mix of lean and kaizen seminars, hands-on lean training and visits to several benchmark lean companies. For further information and program dates, see the lean tour overview page.
Tour Inquiries
Interested in joining us in Japan? For additional information prior to registration please fill in the form provided or contact us.