Taichiro Morinaga

Taichiro Morinaga was the first person to manufacture chocolates in Japan. Morinaga was born on Japan's southern island of Kyushu. He had no formal education. His father died when he was 7. Later he became a potter's apprentice and went to Tokyo in his teens to sell pottery. He became a branch manager for a wholesaler in nearby Yokohama but his branch lost money after extending too much credit to customers because of leniency. Since employees were personally responsible for such losses, Morinaga searched for a way to repay his boss.

With no local prospects found to repay the loss, Morinaga, at age 23, moved to the United States where he opened a hardware store in San Francisco. However, the venture was unsuccessful due to local boycotting due to his race. During the visit, he converted to Christianity.

During his time in the United States, an unidentified American gave him a piece of candy which was a new appetizing treat for Morinaga. Having led an impoverished life in Japan, Morinaga had never tasted such a delicious treat. At the time, candy in Japan was expensive and consisted of either boiled beans or bee honey, which was based on sweets originally brought by Chinese and Portuguese traders centuries earlier or even more expensive candy imported from Europe. Morinaga returned to Japan but came to the United States for a second time. He was unable to obtain candy apprentice jobs in the United States because of his race. Instead, he worked as a janitor in a candy factory to gain experience. He also interviewed Japanese in the United States and found out that marshmallows were popular but unavailable in Japan. This second visit to study candy manufacture lasted ten years. In 1899, he left the United States and initially sold candy from a push cart. Later that year, he opened a candy shop in Tokyo (Minato City), the Morinaga Western Confectionery Shop (later Morinaga Confectionery), with Hanzaburo Matsuzaki, a business partner and fellow Christian.

Morinaga later founded Morinaga & Co, the first modern candy company in Japan and the first to produce chocolates in the country when it started in 1918. One of his early products was marshmallows, which he called "angel food" because of their color and the association with Christianity, his own religion. He developed a type of caramel, called Hi-Chew, became one of his flagship products and resistant to turning into goo in hot Japanese weather, unlike caramel formulations that he had seen in the United States. His formulation was less buttery and appealed better to the Japanese taste.