Founded in 1931 by Isokichi Goto as the Goto Canning Company in Shimizu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Goto had studied canning techniques in Chiba and the United States before returning to establish the company in one of Japan's most important fishing ports. The Sea Chicken brand was launched in 1958 and became Japan's best-selling canned tuna, with over 10 billion cans sold to date. The term sea chicken entered everyday Japanese as the generic word for canned tuna regardless of brand, a measure of the product's cultural reach. The company renamed itself Hagoromo Canning in 1968 and is now listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Production is based in Yaizu City, Shizuoka.