Agenda - 10-15-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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11 1 was sent to Tokyo as the company's sales representative. Morinaga later went to work for a wholesale 2 company, rising to become manager of a branch office in Yokohama. Yet, after extending too much credit 3 to customers, the office went into debt. In order to repay his employer, Morinaga decided to try his luck in 4 California. 5 6 Taichiro Morinaga moved to San Francisco in 1887 and opened a hardware store, trading in high-quality, 7 high-priced goods--in a working class neighborhood. The business, which suffered equally from the 8 pervasive anti-Oriental sentiment of the era, soon failed and forced Morinaga to look elsewhere for a 9 livelihood. 10 11 Yet Morinaga's stay in the United States led him to an important discovery: candy. Japan had remained 12 closed to outside influences for more than 250 years, finally opening its borders to foreigners only in the 13 late 19th century. If the country's elite class had access to sweets--typically based on boiled beans--the 14 majority of the population had limited access to confectionery products, and sugar consumption in general 15 remained low. Milk and milk products were also absent from the Japanese diet. The opening of the 16 country's borders stimulated interest in all things foreign, and the country's growing foreign population 17 encouraged the import of Western-style confectionery and candy. 18 19 Taichiro Morinaga recognized that the growing foreign influence in Japan, and the country's readiness to 20 adopt attributes of Western culture, would inevitably extend to the country's eating habits. Morinaga 21 became determined to learn the art of candy making, in order to introduce new confectionery products to 22 the Japanese market. Despite the anti-Asian prejudice, Morinaga found a job as a janitor at a candy 23 factory, and there learned how to make candy. 24 25 By the end of the century, Morinaga was ready to return to Japan and start his own candy company. Before 26 leaving, Morinaga performed his own bit of market research, questioning members of San Francisco's 27 Japanese community and other Japanese visitors to the city on their candy preferences. Morinaga 28 discovered that the sweet most preferred by the people he questioned was marshmallows, at the time also 29 known as "angel food." The fluffy, egg white-and-sugar-based candy also resembled existing Japanese 30 confections, making it a natural first product. 31 32 Morinaga founded his business with partner Hanzaburo Matsuzaki in 1899, opening a small shop in the 33 Akasaka neighborhood of Tokyo. The business, called Morinaga Western Candy Confectionery, developed 34 quickly as the country eagerly greeted the new candy type. Morinaga himself acted as salesman, pushing a 35 cart from which he sold marshmallows, and other Western-styled cakes and candies. Among these were 36 caramels. This product represented even more of a novelty in Japan in that it contained butter--at a time 37 when dairy products still had not penetrated the Japanese diet. Morinaga's caramel sales were at first 38 limited to his foreign customers, as the Japanese shied away from the strange product. In addition, the 39 country's climate made it difficult to produce--and to eat--caramel, which tended to melt and become too 40 sticky to hold in the heat and humidity. 41 42 Morinaga set out to develop a new caramel recipe for the Japanese market, and by 1914 had perfected a 43 recipe that both appealed to the Japanese palate and also offered a longer shelf life. The new product 44 debuted in 1914, and was packaged in a pocket-sized yellow box. Known as Hi-Chew, the product became 45 a company flagship and one of its core products into the next century. In the meantime, the company's 46 strong marshmallow sales inspired the adoption of a logo, an angel, in 1905--the angel logo also fit in with 47 Morinaga's work as a missionary. The company adopted the name Morinaga Confectionery Inc. in 1912. 48 49 The success of Hi-Chew led Morinaga to seek its own source of dairy products, and in 1917 the company 50 set up a dairy operation, which became Morinaga Dairy Industries. A year later, the company launched a 51 new candy line, becoming the first to introduce the chocolate bar to Japan. Meanwhile, the company began 52 extending its dairy product line, launching its first powdered baby formula in 1920. That launch marked the 53 start of the company's involvement in the nutritional products category as well. 54