Who Is Miaomada? The Story Behind the Name, and Why a Small Workshop in Tokyo Is Going Global

“What kind of company is Miaomada, exactly?”

It’s a question I get from people who’ve come across the ALENNE protein dispenser or our Little Konbi storage boxes and want to know who’s behind them. Miaomada isn’t a familiar name, so the question makes sense.

About Miaomada

Miaomada Co., Ltd. is a small manufacturing company based in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo. I’m the founder, Keiichiro Honda. Our parent company, Showa Denki Co., Ltd., is also in Itabashi. With a small team, we design and develop household products for handling powders.

Our flagship product is the ALENNE protein dispenser, a household dispenser with a patented dosing mechanism that delivers a precise, single serving of protein powder with a single lever pull.

“Why would a company this small pick this product to bet on?” The answer ties back to where the name came from and how Miaomada got started.

The Name “Miaomada”: Greek for “One Team”

Miaomada comes from the Greek phrase μία ομάδα (Mia Omada), which translates as “one team.”

A small group of people, each bringing their own strengths, building one product together and getting it out into the world. That’s the way of working I wanted to keep, and I built the name around it.

Not “one strong individual” but “one team.” It’s the internal shorthand, and it’s also how we approach making things. Designers, our parent company Showa Denki handling manufacturing, our industrial designer, our overseas media partner — each of us bringing a specialty, all working on the same product. The name is just a description of how the work actually happens.

Spinning Out from Showa Denki, So We Could Bet on Our Own Products

Miaomada started as a project inside our parent company, Showa Denki Co., Ltd.

A new category — a household protein dispenser — had moved past concept and into a real path to production. In December 2022, we incorporated Miaomada Co., Ltd. as a separate company.

Why a separate company? The reason is simple: Showa Denki’s main business is contract manufacturing. For decades the company has made parts for other companies’ products. Selling a “household protein dispenser” under the name of a parts factory was always going to be a hard sell to the consumer.

More than that, I wanted to signal, internally and externally, that we were going to keep making original products from here on. Not just contract work. Our own products, on our own brand. Miaomada was built to be the vehicle for that.

When we set the company up, I was still officially an employee in Showa Denki’s Business Planning Office. Miaomada existed as little more than a registered entity. From there, one step at a time, we turned ideas into product, got them out into the world, and built up to where we are now.

Japanese Manufacturing, Inherited from Showa Denki

The foundation of how we make things comes from Showa Denki’s manufacturing capability.

Showa Denki has spent decades in precision metalwork, plastic molding, and assembly. For the protein dispenser, plastic molding and final assembly happen at the Yabuki Plant in Fukushima Prefecture, and the metal base parts come from the Iwase Plant, also in Fukushima. Design and production both stay inside the same group.

The dosing mechanism, the core of the product, took 19 rounds of prototyping to reach. Try, break, try again. The kind of slow, deliberate development a small team can actually pull off.

“Made in Japan” gets said a lot, but household products where the design and the actual production both happen in Japan are increasingly rare. The ALENNE protein dispenser is designed, prototyped, and produced entirely in Japan.

Betting on the Protein Dispenser

The protein dispenser is the first serious household product Miaomada has put out.

The core of the product is the dosing mechanism, registered as Japan Patent No. 7580860. Three elements working together — a ring-shaped chamber, a cover plate, and a leveling edge — let you pull a lever and get a precise single serving of protein powder out the bottom.

Along the way, the product has picked up a few things:

• Two successful crowdfunding rounds on Makuake (Japan’s largest reward-based crowdfunding platform)
• Winner of the Itabashi Industry Association Award at the 23rd Itabashi Product Technology Excellence Award
• Currently sold on Rakuten and Amazon Japan

A household protein dispenser is a category that barely existed in Japan before. We’re trying to build it out properly — with real Japanese manufacturing behind it.

Related reading:

• What Is a Protein Dispenser? How It Works and Why It Matters
• 19 Prototypes to a Dosing Mechanism — The Engineering Behind the Protein Dispenser
• Inside Our Patented Dosing Mechanism: How the Protein Dispenser Stops Leaks and Doses Consistently

Taking It to the US on Kickstarter: Japanese Manufacturing, Out to the World

In May 2026, Miaomada took the next step and launched the protein dispenser on Kickstarter, aimed at the US market.

Why the US? Because that’s where home protein consumption is most established. The country with the most people measuring protein every morning is the right place to find out how our dosing mechanism actually lands with consumers. That’s why we picked the US as our first market abroad.

Whatever the outcome, a small Japanese manufacturer reaching directly into an overseas market on its own is no small thing. The experience itself becomes part of what Miaomada is from here on.

What’s Next: Making Powder Life Smarter

Our concept at Miaomada is “Make powder life smarter.”

It started with protein, but the broader theme is household powders in general — more precise, more hygienic, more enjoyable to handle. That’s the middle-to-long-term direction.

We’re building out the next products on top of the current protein dispenser. Not just protein powder. Eventually, the goal is to make the various powders that live in kitchens easier to deal with across the board.

We’re small, but as “one team” we move one thing at a time, carefully.

Try the ALENNE Protein Dispenser

If you’d like to put the patented dosing mechanism through its paces, you can back the project on Kickstarter:

▶ Back the project on Kickstarter

If it ends up making your daily protein step a little easier, that would mean a lot.