The Taiwanese Roots Behind Meiji’s Best-Selling Chocolate Treat: The “Kinoko no Yama” Story

It may come as a surprise, but the long-term success of the chocolate confectionery “Kinoko no Yama” (Mountain of Mushrooms) by Meiji Confectionery is intrinsically linked to Pocky, Taiwan, and a legacy of sweet memories.

The development of “Kinoko no Yama” was spearheaded by Chief Researcher, Aratomo Niimura, at the Meiji Confectionery’s Food Development Research Institute. Niimura’s ability to create such a delightful treat can be traced back to his childhood memories in Southern Taiwan, where his family had lived for three generations during the Japanese occupation.

Niimura’s grandfather, Shikanosuke, a railway engineer, moved to Taiwan in 1896, not long after the start of the Japanese rule, to construct railroads connecting the north and south of Taiwan. Niimura’s father, Hachimiyuki, born in Taiwan, was an expert in sugarcane cultivation for the Meiji Sugar Company. Aratomo Niimura himself was born in December 1931 in a staff dormitory of the Tsung-Yeh Sugar Factory in Tainan.

In Taiwan, from winter to spring was sugarcane harvesting and sugar-making season. The sweet-scented distillation water produced during the sugar-making process was supplied to the employee dormitories via pipes. “I bathed in sweet-smelling water every day, which…