Not only is the population bust going to mean fewer people, the network of
bridges linking Shikoku to the rest of Japan encourages people to drive. Realizing this, the company decided to go beyond rail transport and to try to sell some of Shikoku's natural bounty to other Japanese. Meriken'ya was started in 1998 to sell sanuki udon noodles nationwide.
  
Encouraged by this success, the company has recently turned its attention to soup. Because Shikoku has such an abundance of nutritious produce, the soup potential is obvious. Especially when this is organic and additive free. And soup has the added benefit of using produce that might not meet the retailers' rigid packing and visual criteria. (Straight cucumbers pack better and have more visual appeal. Crooked cucumbers are fine for soup.)
  
Thus was born Shicook (Shikoku) Soup. At first, it was marketed mainly for institutional and mail-order customers, but there are now a number of restaurants and take-out stops. Some of this was, admittedly, pattered after the Soup Kitchen chain that offers garlic toast and great soup in New York and elsewhere. Yet for Japan, it is a new approach to casual dining that we hope will catch on.
  
Kurita Yoshio
JR Shikoku Railway and Meriken'ya