Not 30km from Edgerton stands a 21st century monument to Japan’s partnership with Wisconsin. In 1972, Kikkoman, one of Japan’s oldest and most respected companies, built its first overseas production facility in the United States.

Kikkoman was drawn by fundamentals that Wisconsin does exceptionally well: pure water, high-quality soybeans and wheat, a central U.S. location, and a workforce built for careful, long-term craft. Over the decades that followed, the company reinvested again and again, ultimately committing nearly $1 billion and establishing Wisconsin as the world’s leader in soy sauce production.

Kikkoman is not a detour from the Rascal Trail. It is the story’s present tense. The clever, hardworking, and kind people Japanese families met in Araiguma Rascal are the same ones who now carefully brew the world’s most iconic soy sauce to an exacting standard. It is Japanese craftsmanship carried forward by Wisconsin hands. Brewed in rural Wisconsin and shipped to kitchens around the world, Kikkoman soy sauce fermented a friendship that anchors Wisconsin-Japan relations, and will for generations to come.

Visits must be arranged in advance.