When Arisa Katayama had her daughter in LA during COVID, she did what most first-time moms do: focused on the birth and the baby, not herself. Then the fourth trimester hit. Sleep-deprived, still breastfeeding late into the night, she kept opening a half-empty fridge filled with leftovers and frozen pizza, realizing there was nothing truly nourishing or postpartum-safe for her.

That moment became the seed for For Her by Arisa, a Japanese-born brand now launching in the U.S. with postpartum recovery soups rooted in yakuzan, a traditional philosophy where TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) meets Japanese home cooking.

Arisa’s mission: “We’re here to mother women, because women spend their lives mothering everyone else.”

Key takeaways from our conversation:

• Postpartum first, women’s health always:
  From supporting new moms to addressing hormones across periods, fertility, miscarriage, postpartum, and menopause.
• Traditional wisdom, modern format:
  Japanese and TCM-inspired soups that blend comforting, grandma-style recipes with functional, clinical intention.
• Built on cross-cultural insight:
  Started in Japan with shelf-stable pouches; adapted to U.S. preferences with frozen, handmade Orange County–produced soups.
• Growing slowly, on purpose:
  Bootstrapped and intentionally rolling out through doulas, practitioners, and sampling before broader retail.

Explore more at forherbyarisa.com or on Instagram @forherbyarisa.