Title | TUNA SCOPE 2020 |
Brand | KURA SUSHI, INC. |
Product / Service | "TUNA SCOPE" AND "AI TUNA" |
Category | I07. Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility |
Entrant | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Idea Creation | DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
PR | DENTSU PUBLIC RELATIONS INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production | INFORMATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL-DENTSU, LTD. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production 2 | KOOZYT, INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production 3 | DENTSU LIVE INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production 4 | DENTSU CREATIVE X INC. Tokyo, JAPAN |
Production 5 | DENTSU INC. Osaka, JAPAN |
Additional Company | DENTSU CREATIVE FORCE Tokyo, JAPAN |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Kazuhiro Shimura | DENTSU INC. | Creative Director |
Akimichi Hibi | DENTSU INC. | Business Producer |
Ryo Sasaki | DENTSU INC. | Communication Planner |
Daisuke Matsunaga | DENTSU INC. | Art Director |
Yukiko Matsue | DENTSU INC. | Account Manager |
Xinyi Deng | DENTSU INC. | Account Manager |
Hideyuki Hirai | DENTSU INC. | Business Producer |
Kanji Yanagidate | DENTSU INC. | Business Producer |
Ryunosuke Tsuzuki | DENTSU INC. | Business Producer |
Akira Tomikawa | INFORMATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL-DENTSU, LTD. | Producer |
Yusuke Masumoto | INFORMATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL-DENTSU, LTD. | Producer |
Taira Kimura | INFORMATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL-DENTSU, LTD. | Producer |
Hiroshi Morita | INFORMATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL-DENTSU, LTD. | Producer |
Keigo Ihara | INFORMATION SERVICES INTERNATIONAL-DENTSU, LTD. | Producer |
Yasushi Miyajima | Koozyt, Inc. | Data Scientist |
Hideyuki Ono | Koozyt, Inc. | Engineer |
Amina Mim | Koozyt, Inc. | AI Engineer |
Hasanur Rashid | Koozyt, Inc. | AI Engineer |
Tomoyuki Kato | DENTSU LIVE INC. | Director |
Tatsuya Murayama | DENTSU LIVE INC. | Chief Producer |
Masaya Ishii | DENTSU LIVE INC. | Producer |
Chisako Hasegawa | DENTSU LIVE INC. | Producer |
Takafumi Shindo | SHINDII LLC. | Producer |
Takaomi Maeda | DENTSU CREATIVE FORCE INC. | Creative Producer |
Hitoshi Nakao | Dentsu Creative X Inc. | Web Director |
Shogo Hina | AOIRO | Web Designer |
Tatsuo Yamano | At Armz Inc | Producer |
Katsuhiro Uto | WOO inc. | Designer |
Jiro Watanabe | WOO inc. | Designer |
Shunkichi Akutsu | Freelance | CG Designer |
Go Aoyama | Freelance | CG Designer |
Takeshi Kaneko | AD DENTSU OSAKA INC. | Account Manager |
Takanori Hosoi | AD DENTSU OSAKA INC. | Account Manager |
Tokio Noji | AD DENTSU OSAKA INC. | Account Manager |
Koichi Ikariyama | DENTSU PUBLIC RELATIONS INC. | PR Planner |
Yuichiro Hagiwara | DENTSU PUBLIC RELATIONS INC. | PR Planner |
Koichi Maeda | DENTSU PUBLIC RELATIONS INC. | PR Planner |
Kura Sushi is among Japan’s largest sellers of tuna by volume. To procure stock, the sushi chain’s skilled artisans visited various regions in Japan and abroad to directly evaluate the quality of tuna for purchase, using judgment cultivated through years of experience. However, travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic made it impossible for artisans to evaluate and purchase on-site as they had before. To ensure that it could continue delivering delicious tuna to consumers amid these supply threats, Kura Sushi adopted a technology that we had developed. We took on the challenge of ‘AI-driven purchasing’, a new initiative that overturned conventions in the fishing industry.
Working with Kura Sushi, we sent the TUNA SCOPE data to Dalian, China, where in a world-first the AI performed remote purchasing in place of skilled artisans. Having mastered the specialized skill, the AI’s judgment succeeded in procuring several hundred tons of tuna far faster than previously possible, without requiring staff to travel during the pandemic. While achieving a digital transformation of a skill that had relied on human judgment, we also sought to gain attention as a solution capable of overcoming the COVID-19 crisis.
In July 2020, AI purchasing by TUNA SCOPE was announced to the press as ‘a new approach to purchasing’ to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. Tuna that the AI selected as the highest quality stock from among several hundred tons was also launched as a new product, ‘AI Tuna’, sold at 461 Kura Sushi stores around Japan. We also conducted an ongoing launch campaign for ‘AI Tuna’ that included TV commercials.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, AI Tuna achieved three times the forecast sales (across 461 stores nationwide). This initiative has become a global sensation, covered by over 1,000 media outlets in 56 countries as an innovation that will transform the fisheries industry beyond the current pandemic. TUNA SCOPE has been adopted as a promotion program supported by the government of Japan. With the national government’s support, we are expanding the supply of AI-selected tuna around the world, including in New York and Singapore. Through TUNA SCOPE, we seek to spread Japanese skills globally to create a society where everyone can enjoy delicious tuna into the future.
In addition to the value of offering consumers delicious AI-selected tuna, TUNA SCOPE also holds a social significance, helping to solve the aging workforce problem by sustaining the specialized tacit knowledge of artisans. By using AI to create shared global standards for tuna quality, TUNA SCOPE also introduces the concept of ‘quality’ into the dynamics of a tuna business previously focused on ‘quantity’, where trade was based on weight. This has the potential to contribute to solving resource problems by deterring overfishing that prioritizes quantity at the expense of quality. With Kura Sushi embracing such a vision for the product, we were able to realize an initiative that made a significant impact on industry and society.