Yakult

Yakult is a Japanese probiotic milk-like product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus casei Shirota. It was created by Minoru Shirota who graduated from the Medical School of Kyoto University in 1930. In 1935, he started manufacturing and selling Yakult. Official claims state that the name is derived from jahurto, an older form of jogurto, the Turkish word for "yoghurt". Since then, Yakult has also introduced a line of beverages for the Japanese market that contain Bifidobacterium breve bacteria, and has also used its lactobacilli research to develop cosmetics. More recently, the Yakult Honsha played a major role in developing the chemotherapy drug irinotecan (Camptosar, CPT-11).

After its introduction in Japan and Taiwan, Yakult was first sold in Brazil in 1966, due to the large number of Japanese immigrants in the country, before it was marketed elsewhere. Today, Yakult is sold in 31 countries, although its bacteria cultures are provided from a mother strain from Japan regardless of production location.

Yakult is marketed in different sizes. In Australia, Europe, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam Yakult comes in 65mL bottles. In the Americas (including Mexico, one of Yakult's largest selling markets), Japan, Philippines, Thailand and South Korea, 80 ml bottles are available. It is also available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China where Yakult comes in 100 ml bottles.

The product is made by Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd. (株式会社ヤクルト本社, Kabushiki-gaisha Yakuruto Honsha?) (TYO: 2267), where Groupe Danone has a 20% share. The company also owns one of Japan's major baseball franchises, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. It has been also one of the partner companies of the FINA World Aquatics Championships since 2005.