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Takara Holdings Inc

A Japanese holding company based in Kyoto that makes traditional drinks and runs a biotech arm. Its Takara Shuzo group is one of the world's largest distillers of shochu, and also produces sake, mirin cooking wine, whisky, and seasonings, while its Takara Bio subsidiary supplies gene-research tools and reagents to labs worldwide. The business traces back to 1842, when the Yomo family began brewing sake in Kyoto's Fushimi district, and the name "Takara" means "treasure" in Japanese. A fun twist: the same company that brews sake helped bring PCR gene-copying technology to Japan's research labs.