Overturning the Common Sense of “Grease Trap Cleaning” — A Small Factory’s Challenge to Take on the World with AI
Subject: Chura Giken Co., Ltd.
In the food and beverage industry, where labor shortages and rising costs are ongoing challenges, cleaning the kitchen’s “grease trap” (oil-and-fat separation tank) stands out as one of the most physically demanding, dirty, and avoided tasks. We interviewed Chura Giken Co., Ltd., an Okinawa-based company behind the innovative cleaning agent “Chura Chura Cho Senjou” (Chura Chura Super Cleaning). We spoke with them about the story behind developing a product born from a cleaner’s heartfelt struggles, and the strategy this small Okinawan company is using — powered by AI — to break into overseas markets.
Q. First, could you tell us about your flagship product and the challenges it addresses in the field?
A. A cleaning agent that allows you to treat grease affordably and safely — without relying on vacuum cleaning.
Our flagship product is the grease trap cleaning agent “Chura Chura Cho Senjou.” We understand that, traditionally, grease trap cleaning in restaurants has been carried out either by vacuum cleaning or products with significant risks to human health. Today, however, it is increasingly difficult for service providers to obtain parking permits in central Tokyo or within buildings. Providers face low profit margins relative to the labor involved, and must spend even more time cleaning oil-covered equipment after each job. As a result, many are withdrawing from the market or raising their prices, leaving restaurant owners caught in a double bind: “Service providers won’t come” and “Costs are too high.”
Our product dissolves grease simply by adding a water-dissolved chemical agent, allowing it to be flushed away with water. Vacuum cleaning costs ¥15,000–¥20,000 per visit, plus industrial waste disposal fees and the administrative burden of managing industrial waste manifests. In comparison, our product costs approximately ¥7,000 per month with twice-monthly use — cutting costs by more than half while eliminating the cumbersome paperwork. A unique formulation also settles at the bottom, suppressing odors for 4–5 days, addressing both pipe blockages and bad smells.
Q. What was the inspiration behind developing this product?
A. It was born from the determination of a cleaner suffering from atopic dermatitis who wanted to protect his hands.
This product was developed not by a chemist, but by a single cleaning worker in Okinawa. He had been performing store cleaning, but suffered from atopic dermatitis — the powerful industrial alkaline cleaners left his hands in tatters, bleeding from the damage. Rather than quit, he thought: “I’ll just make a cleaner that won’t hurt my hands” — and spent over 10 years teaching himself and repeatedly experimenting with formulations.
The turning point came during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants shut down, his cleaning work dried up completely, and he came to us saying he could no longer make ends meet. To help him spread his product further, we established our company with the goal of strengthening sales and promotion. We packaged the already-developed cleaning agent under an “Okinawa brand” identity and built a system to bring it to markets across Japan and beyond.
Q. What drove a small regional company to adopt AI, and can you share some specific use cases?
A. We adopted AI to break through the barriers of overseas expansion and to supplement knowledge outside our areas of expertise.
We are a small organization, but we are seeing growing inquiries from Southeast Asian markets, including Singapore and Thailand. However, we have no in-house language specialists. So, we make full use of AI for multilingual translation of flyers and manuals, as well as for interpretation in local business negotiations.
Specifically, we use AI in the following ways:
・Multilingual rollout and materials creation: We use tools like NotebookLM and generative AI to feed in our Japanese flyer content and translate it into English and local languages, combining image-generation AI to create promotional materials on the spot.
・Acquiring specialist knowledge: Working alongside our pharmacist responsible for quality control, we use AI to gather specialized knowledge about ingredients (such as the chemistry of surfactants) and to research overseas licensing and regulatory requirements, deepening our product understanding.
・Streamlining business negotiations: In meetings with people from overseas, we use real-time translation features such as Gemini to communicate without the need for a professional interpreter.
AI is not a “magic wand” — it is our “strongest partner,” acting as our hands and feet and filling the gaps in our limited resources. We also work on improving AI literacy across the entire team, including having all staff study for relevant certifications.
Q. Were there any surprising reactions from the market?
A. It’s the paradox that “the cleaner the store, the more people buy.”
Initially, we assumed that restaurants struggling with dirty grease traps would be the first to adopt our product. In reality, however, it has been high-end hotels and major chain restaurants — those already maintaining very high hygiene standards — that have led the way in adopting it. Conversely, venues with low awareness of sanitation often fail to respond no matter how compelling our cost-reduction proposals are. The clear “gap in awareness” has been both a major discovery and a significant challenge in our sales efforts.
Q. What are your future plans, and what kind of society do you hope to contribute to?
A. We want to reduce the burden of “3K labor” and share environmental technology from Okinawa with the world.
Grease trap cleaning is what is known as “3K work” — Kitsui (physically hard), Kitanai (dirty), and Kiken (dangerous) — and in workplaces already facing labor shortages, it is often a reason part-time workers quit. We believe our product’s ability to reduce that burden contributes to improving working conditions. In addition, by breaking down grease with environmentally friendly ingredients, we help prevent pipe blockages and contribute to water quality conservation.
We are currently leveraging our brand status as an “Okinawa Prefecture Excellent Regional Product” to expand into major supermarket chains and café chains across Japan. Looking further ahead, we aim to spread “environmental technology from Okinawa” to overseas markets — primarily across Asia — and to protect the hands of workers on the ground, and the water of our planet.
Editor’s Note
A single person’s desperate wish — “I want a cleaner that won’t hurt my hands” — grew through the mutual support of the COVID-19 era into a business, and is now taking flight to the world with AI as its wings. The story of Chura Giken Co., Ltd. teaches us that regardless of technological capability or company size, the key to building the future is the willingness to face real-world challenges head-on and to flexibly embrace the tools available to us — including AI.