Japanese ice cream and confectionery purveyor Imuraya Group looks to leverage a halal-certified production facility in Malaysia to market to Muslim consumers elsewhere in Southeast Asia, and eventually the Middle East, President Yasuki Onishi told Nikkei.

The company, known for products like its signature Azuki bar — ice cream bars that contain sweet red bean paste — looks to offer “made-in-Japan items that can’t be found locally,” Onishi said.

Edited excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: You’ve set a target of generating 8.8% of your sales overseas in fiscal 2026, up from 7.4% in fiscal 2023. What’s your strategy?

A: We make products such as seasonings and castella cakes in China and mochi ice cream in the U.S. In Malaysia, we outsource production of the Azuki bar and mochi ice cream. The key point is how much we can grow local sales of those products. Beyond that, I think a lot of the items we make in Japan are suitable for export.

Q: Which products are good export candidates?

A: We want to expand exports of our long-shelf-life tofu. In North America, we have a track record of selling castella cakes. We may add something extra by coming out with items with different flavors or other added value.

We’ve always had good results with ice cream. I hope we can increase sales of our ice cream products. We want to offer made-in-Japan items that can’t be found locally, rather than things that will compete with local products.

We’re also thinking of exporting taiyaki [fish-shaped pastries filled with ice cream]. It shouldn’t be a problem if we can get a cold-chain delivery system in place.

Q: Are there new markets you want to expand into?

A: For now, our export targets include North America, China, Hong Kong and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We’re focusing on ASEAN in particular. We entered Malaysia in part because we envision it as an export hub to the rest of ASEAN.

Many Muslims live in Malaysia. Since [the production facility there] has halal certification, that puts us in a strong position to export to countries with large Muslim populations. We’ll expand starting with neighboring Indonesia. The Middle East is a future target for us as well.

Q: How do you plan to strengthen operations in Japan?

A: This also ties into our response to Japan’s shrinking population, but we haven’t done as well a job in approaching commercial clients, including in the food and beverage sector. We envision hotel buffets serving our frozen Japanese desserts, for example. We can still work on this, including adjusting the size and volume of our products.