2026 SEP | A Japanese View from America by Tato Takahama | Pacific Research Institute | When the Knife Is the Pitcher, the Cutting Board Is the Catcher — How Can Japan’s “Good Stuff” Find a Place in the American Market?
By Tato Takahama
Pacific Research Institute
September 27, 2026
On September 26, a major exhibition devoted to Japanese food and food-related products was held at the Pasadena Convention Center in California. It was organized by Mutual Trading Co., Inc., which began in Los Angeles in 1926 as a cooperative purchasing and importing organization for Japanese grocery store owners bringing food, beverages, restaurant equipment, and culinary supplies to the American market.
Walking through the exhibition, I came across the booth of H&K Trading. A cloth banner carried a simple phrase:
“Japanese Excellence, Global Reach.”
That phrase seemed to capture something much larger than the company itself.
Then I looked at what H&K was displaying:
A cutting board.
That may not sound like much of a story. But I do not think it is a small story.
The product was CookinCut, a synthetic-rubber cutting board manufactured by Parker Asahi Corporation in Japan.
H&K President Yuichi Tsujio put the relationship between a Japanese knife and a Japanese cutting board in a way that was both simple and memorable:
“If the knife is the pitcher, the cutting board is the catcher.”
The point is not simply that a cutting board provides a surface on which to cut food. The material of the board affects the way a knife meets the surface, and the appropriate choice depends on the ingredients, the knife, and the way the knife is used.
H&K emphasizes two qualities in particular: hygiene and a cutting surface that is gentle on knife edges.
That matters in a country where the cutting board is not merely a piece of kitchen equipment but part of everyday food preparation.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises consumers to wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot, soapy water after preparing each food item and before moving on to the next. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also recommends considering separate cutting boards for produce and bread and for raw meat, poultry, and seafood. Once a cutting board becomes excessively worn or develops grooves and cracks that are difficult to clean, it should be replaced.
In other words, a cutting board is a consumable kitchen tool.
Tsujio describes CookinCut differently. His phrase was:
“Buy it once, and it can be a lifetime purchase.”
That is the company’s own description of the product’s durability and should be understood as such.
What is important, however, is that this is not a product Americans have to imagine buying someday.
American consumers can already find Asahi CookinCut products through online and specialty retailers. MTC Kitchen carries Parker Asahi Cookin’ Cut products, while Global Kitchen Japan offers multiple sizes for both home and professional use.
There are Americans searching Amazon and other online stores for Japanese knives. Japanese knives have already established a strong reputation among American chefs and home cooks. The next question is what belongs underneath those knives.
H&K began distributing synthetic-rubber cutting boards manufactured by Parker Asahi globally in August 2020. The company was incorporated as H&K Trading Inc. in September 2023. According to its website, its sales operations now serve customers in more than 20 countries, with a primary focus on European and American markets.
Hiroshi “Ken” Yamamoto, H&K’s director of sales, previously headed domestic and international corporate sales at Japan’s largest manufacturer of synthetic-rubber cutting boards, according to the company. He joined H&K in September 2023.
Parker Asahi, established in 1956, manufactures CookinCut synthetic-rubber cutting boards as part of a broader range of rubber and chemical products. H&K describes CookinCut as a product known for quality control and reliability.
But “Made in Japan” alone is no longer enough.
The challenge is to explain the relationship between the Japanese knife and the Japanese cutting board.
It is to explain why the two belong together.
It is also to create occasions in which Americans can experience that relationship for themselves.
Culinary schools could play a role. Japanese restaurants could introduce the products to chefs. Chefs could demonstrate them on YouTube and social media. Home cooks could discover that the cutting surface beneath a knife changes the experience of using the knife itself.
H&K’s website already offers consultation for customers who need to consider such factors as the dimensions of a sushi or fish counter, the knives being used, and the size of ingredients. The company is therefore selling more than one board. It sells a relationship between a tool, a kitchen, and the person using it.
There is an old Japanese expression, “Manaita no koi”—a carp on a cutting board, with nowhere to escape.
But the American market’s cutting board holds something else.
It holds the chef, the sushi chef, the customer, and the home cook.
If the Japanese knife is the pitcher, the cutting board is the catcher.
So here is the real question: Who is going to step up to the plate—and figure out how to cook the American market?
The challenge is not merely to sell Japan’s “good things” to America. It is to make them American consumers’ own.
That game has already begun.
The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cultural News.
Note: English Translation was prepared by the author. Translation assistance tools might have been used.
2026 SEP | A Japanese View from America | PRI | 包丁がピッチャーなら、まな板はキャッチャー――日本の「いいもの」は米市場をどう料理するか