This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Japan 300 2026
SATO continues to strengthen its position as a specialist B2B brand trusted across a wide range of markets and industries, combining more than 85 years of heritage with a forward-looking approach to auto-ID solutions, digital transformation and sustainable growth. As businesses increasingly seek accuracy, resilience and end-to-end traceability across their operations, SATO is evolving its global offering while remaining true to its founding philosophy of “Ceaseless Creativity” and the frontline capability, or genbaryoku, at the heart of its culture. Kaori Morikuni, Executive Officer overseeing global brand and public relations, shares how SATO is driving long-term growth through trusted customer relationships, a deep sense of employee pride, digital innovation and a commitment to sustainability that is embedded across the business.
Interview with Kaori Morikuni, Executive Officer overseeing global brand and public relations
Executive Officer Overseeing Global Brand
and Public Relations,
SATO Corporation
SATO enters the Brand Finance Japan 300 2026 ranking this year with a brand value of JPY25.8 billion, underscoring the growing importance of specialist B2B brands. What do you believe has been key to this?
SATO’s entry into the Brand Finance Japan 300 2026 ranking reflects 85 years of trust from providing services and solutions to a wide range of market and industry sectors. Despite the highly specialised nature of our B2B business, our brand is associated with trust. The value we provide reaches not only our customers, but also the organsations, patients and consumers that they serve.
We learned through a stakeholder audit in 2025 that our customers and partners do not see SATO simply as a provider of printers, labels, RFID or software. Rather, they value us as a company that goes on-site, understands workflows, stays involved until problems are solved, and never gives up, even in difficult situations. We heard comments such as “SATO is not just a supplier, but a partner,” They don’t run away or give up,” and “If you have a problem, SATO can solve it.” These comments show that SATO’s brand and trust have been built through behaviour and daily problem-solving, not through products or advertising. That operational trust is a powerful source of our brand value.
Over our history, SATO has continued to innovate to build that trust. From labeling with hand labelers in supermarkets in the 1960s to mechanised labeling from the 1980s, and then to item-level traceability in the 2010s and 2020s, we change with the times. Today, demand is growing for solutions that support sustainability, well-being and the circular economy. Our brand is not only associated with our products, but with the expanding potential of what auto-ID solutions can do: ensure accuracy, save labor and resources, offer reassurance, enable sustainable initiatives, emotional connections and well-being. And this value grows over time.
SATO’s current management recognises brand not simply as a marketing or communications function, but a strategic business asset. Our corporate strategy explicitly includes strengthening global branding as part of strengthening the global management infrastructure. This is significant. It shows that brand is being treated as a strategic management function connected to governance, human capital, cybersecurity and global growth rather than as a secondary marketing theme. For a B2B company, this kind of commitment is essential because the brand must be expressed consistently through people, proposals, service quality and long-term customer relationships.
One of SATO's biggest strengths is the sense of pride and loyalty among employees. How has that culture been created and what impact does that have on how people view the brand externally?
SATO’s employee pride and loyalty have been fostered through a culture that sees people as the company’s greatest source of value. The foundation is ‘SATO Values’, our corporate philosophy rooted in our founder’s motto, “Ceaseless Creativity”. These values have been reinforced through systems that allow each employee to feel personally connected to the company’s mission. Promotion of SATO Values through credo behaviour workshops and invention awards turn daily actions into a source of pride. SATO employees are encouraged to think independently, rejoice in change, and contribute to business growth and the creation of customer value.
Meanwhile our Teiho reporting system also gives employees a direct way to share ideas for improving the company and allows them to visibly experience how their own ideas can lead to real action.
This internal culture has a major impact on how our brand is experienced externally. Because employees act with ownership, visit customers’ sites of operations, understand the true nature of the issues they face, and demonstrate genbaryoku – the ability to find the optimal solution on-site – customers see SATO not simply as a supplier, but as a partner that works alongside them. As a result, the SATO brand is seen as sincere, reliable and deeply involved in keeping customers’ operations running. Employee pride directly strengthens the brand’s reputation. Ceaseless creativity, a sense of responsibility, and perseverance have become part of our internal culture, and this is reflected in how customers and stakeholders see us.
How is the company evolving its value proposition to remain relevant as industries accelerate their digital transformation?
We are evolving our offer from simply providing products like printers, labels, RFID and software to deliver end-to-end auto-ID solutions that connect technology, operations and people. The key is our ability to turn frontline understanding into future-looking proposals, integrate technologies on-site, and design systems that prevent operations from stopping. The pursuit of “Perfect and Unique Tagging,” as set out in our 2030 vision, aims to realise a future where every item has its own unique ID and is seamlessly connected. This expands the meaning of the SATO brand beyond labeling, positioning it as part of the social infrastructure that supports traceability, safety, efficiency and resilience. And our brand value is increasing because we are clearly articulating our role in areas that matter to society and to our customers’ operations, while helping customers adapt to more complex, data-driven business environments.
SATO is investing in future-oriented growth areas such as smart packaging, blood and specimen supply chain management and the circular economy, expanding its role in Japan’s social infrastructure. We will continue advancing end-to-end traceability across manufacturing, logistics, sales, consumption and recycling as we work toward the realisation of “Perfect and Unique Tagging.”
