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The Ochiai Germination Method is a novel cultivation technique discovered by examining how soybeans respond to environmental stress during germination.

It focuses on the critical period immediately after germination, when seeds, having activated their germination genes, experience a surge in metabolic activity. This leads to rapid production of energy and growth, as well as an increased release of enzymes that break down stored starches and proteins into sugars and amino acids.
Unlike traditional methods that focus on inactive dried seeds, the Ochiai Germination Method targets the seeds just after germination when they are highly active and effective in converting stored nutrients.

Exposing soybeans to stressful growth conditions by regulating oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, moisture, and so on during germination activates additional metabolic processes not normally found in seed germination. By doing this, enzyme activity and the rate of decomposition reactions, as well as the amount of free amino acids, rapidly increase. This is the basic principle.

At DAIZ, when soybeans are densely packed in tanks for sprouting, oxygen is rapidly consumed, leading to an increase in carbon dioxide levels. As a result, the temperature inside the germination tank rises quickly, creating a stressful environment for the germinating soybeans.
As such, the degradative and synthetic enzymes in the soybeans go into full operation to cope with the severe stress, accelerating metabolism to breakneck speed.

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Firstly, our soybeans taste significantly better.

After about 13 hours of germination, glutamic acid (the source of umami) is 5.5 times higher than that of regular cooked soybeans, arginine (the source of energy) is 1.45 times higher, isoflavone is 4.3 times higher, and GABA is 3.5 times higher due to enzyme activation.

Secondly, it breaks down the larger molecular size of plant amino acids to enhance digestion and absorption, so that the human body can easily process these nutrients. Many plant protein have larger molecular sizes, but the Ochiai Germination Method reduces their size through increased enzyme activity.