When 30-year-old Johan Martinius Thoresen arrived in Japan in 1864, he found a country thirsting to catch up to the rest of the world technologically, and with a major appetite to learn from the West. The country had only recently been opened up to trade with the West by American gunboats. Its isolation had shielded it from the Western imperialism that ravaged other parts of the globe, but at the same time it meant Japan had missed out on industrial advances.
Thoresen settled in Yokohama, one of the very few cities where foreigners were allowed to live. In his first years in Japan, Thoresen worked in a dairy. In 1870 he discovered a spring and established The Spring Valley Brewery. Though he started production at this very early stage, his brewery was not the first of its kind. One of his early competitors, Emile Wiegand, was already established. Thoresen's competitors, however, had misunderstood the Japanese beer market and were producing beer the way foreigners were used to producing it. But Thoresen understood that the Japanese wanted a less bitter beer, one that was more palatable to Japanese tastes. With this vision, his product became an instant hit.
Kirin Beer is one of Japans big four brewers.
Kirin Beer is one of Japan's big four brewers
His business grew rapidly, fueled by equipment and raw material from California and the good water he had discovered in that Yokohama valley.
After the 1880s, Japan's economy became weaker and competition from new breweries made life difficult for Thoresen. His letters became more and more desperate as he pressured debtors for money and thanked creditors for their patience. But he could not make it. In 1884, he went bankrupt, and the brewery was taken over by the Japan Brewery Company. Four years later the brewery company combined with Meiji-ya to market Kirin Beer for the first time.
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