Shigeki Aoki is an expert on structuring and managing channels of distribution, and rivitarizing local areas throughout Japan. He is on a member of the board of trustees of the association of Design about Strategy for Zone Industry and Zone Brand.He has won several awards for his teaching, including Shakaijin Kisoryoku(Business Basic Skills) Award by MEIT(Ministry of Economy、Trade and Industry) in 2008. Professor Aoki has consulted and taught for a number of major corporations. Before joining KOMAZAWA in 2008, Professor Aoki served on the faculty of the University of Yamanashi Gakuin University.He is also a chairman of NPO Yamanashi Cycling Project. He got Master Degree of Commerce at Keio University in 1994. He finished the Ph.D Course of Commerce at Keio in 1997.

After graduating from university, he gained experience in the apparel industry and in sales before joining a food and beverage company in Singapore. He later moved to Pizza 4P’s in Vietnam, where he was responsible for store development, new business initiatives, and marketing. In 2021, he led the launch of a zero-waste restaurant as the country representative of Pizza 4P’s Cambodia. Following this, he was involved in the opening and direction of new stores across multiple countries, including Japan and Indonesia. He currently serves as Global Branding Director, overseeing concept development, design, creative direction, and PR on a global scale. From this year, he has also taken on projects in New York, USA.

He is a sustainability professional who began his career at Kawasaki Heavy Industries in factory administration, focusing on HR and health & safety. After helping launch new environmental business ventures, he moved to the UK in 2007, earning an MSc in Environmental Sciences (University of East Anglia) and an MBA (Lancaster University). In 2010, he founded Sustainavision Ltd. in London to bridge Japanese companies with European sustainability practice through training and research, and since 2012 he has regularly delivered the certified Sustainability Practitioner Program in Japan. In 2018, he established SRA Japan to advance restaurant sustainability and consumer awareness. He also chairs MAFF’s Sustainable Restaurant Working Team and published the “Chef’s Sustainability Manifesto: 17 Principles Toward 2030,” promoting sustainability action among chefs.

Yokota Farm began organic farming in 1990 in the Aoyama district, south of Ogawa Town, Saitama. Our approach is not defined simply by avoiding pesticides or chemical fertilizers, but by a fundamental question: How can agriculture in this place continue for the next 100 years?

Today, agriculture relies heavily on imported energy, fertilizers, chemicals, and seeds. In supporting mass consumption, we have lost local wisdom and food cultures that once enabled coexistence with nature.

At Yokota Farm, we believe vegetables should express the character of the land. We preserve local heirloom varieties and food traditions, and through repeated seed saving, adapt crops to Ogawa’s climate—creating new local varieties for the future.

Rather than overwriting culture, we seek to re-edit it, building upon inherited roots to shape the next 100 years.