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Member Profiles
UCC Holdings Co., Ltd.
Group Representative and Representative Director-Chairman
Tatsushi Ueshima
Tatsushi Ueshima was born in Kobe City in 1938. He graduated from Konan University Faculty of Economics in 1961. He joined the UCC Ueshima Coffee in 1963 (now UCC Holdings Co., Ltd.). Ueshima became Executive Vice President in 1965; President in 1980; and his current position of UCC Group Representative and Representative Director-Chairman in 2009.
Among coffee industry associations, Ueshima has contributed to the development of Japan’s coffee industry as the fourth president of the All Japan Coffee Association and as the inaugural president of the All Japan Coffee Fair Trade Conference, Japan Household Regular Coffee Industry Association, and the Specialty Coffee Association of Japan. In recognition of Ueshima’s efforts and achievements, the government of Japan has awarded him the Medal of Honor (Medal with Blue Ribbon) and the Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon), and many other coffee producing countries (such as Brazil, Columbia, Jamaica, Guatemala) and coffee consuming countries (such as the USA and France) have bestowed awards and honors upon him.
On the grounds of Okuno-in on Koyasan, there is a memorial monument erected for UCC employees who have passed which is in the shape of a large coffee cup. Since its erection in 1994, I have come three times each year with the core members of UCC to pay our respects and ensure the enduring legacy of the many employees, like our founder, who contributed so much yet passed before seeing the full realization of their efforts. Koyasan is a place of deep emotion and reflection for the members of UCC.
At the same time, however, Kumano is an area I have not previously had much opportunity to visit and have know little about, other than its association with the yatagarasu (three-legged crow) legend from Japan’s founding myth of Emperor Jimmu’s eastward migration; nevertheless, I have always been keenly interested to visit and learn more about this sacred area which is so intimately tied with the origins of Japan.
I am delighted and greatly honored to be able to count myself among the Group of 100 Devotees of Koyasan and Kumano. Through my involvement with this group, I hope to learn more about these two major sacred sites of the Kii Peninsula, as well as learn more about Japan’s mythological age, and I will endeavor to help communicate the appeal and attraction of Koyasan and Kumano to a wider audience.
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