Wikipedia
is a probiotic dairy product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus casei Shirota. It was created by Japanese scientist 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 Esperanto word for " yogurt". 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 and New Zealand, Europe, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam Yakult comes in 65mL bottles. In America (including Mexico, one of Yakult's largest selling markets), Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea, 80 ml bottles are available. It is also available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China where Yakult comes in 100 ml bottles.
The product is made by , 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.