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often since we are both members of Soyfoods Development
Study Group (Daizu Shokuhin Kaihatsu Kenkyû-kai). He
recently told me, ‘After that incident, I became captivated by
soy protein.’”
“After about 2 years of research, during the summer we
received an order from Nisshin Seiyu for 200 tons of soy
protein. Our plant had been losing money for a long time,
and this discovery helped to make some profi t during my
time of work there. I will never forget it. I feel real gratitude
to Nisshin Seiyu for helping us to become captivated by
soybeans.”
At about that time dairy farmers throughout Japan began
to compete with one another in a price war which lowered
milk prices. The battle between them and the owners of dairy
milk companies got worse and worse. Among the leaders of
this struggle were progressive dairy farmers in Matsumoto.
“Although we made soy powder very secretly, one of the
plant workers, who was the son of a dairy farmer, leaked the
secret. This caused an uproar (we were using soy powder
instead of dairy milk) and the local farmers asked us to stop
immediately. However we decided to continue making soy
powder for various reasons: (1) We had to fulfi ll the order
that we had accepted; (2) Since we simply processed soy and
sold it to another company, this had no effect on our plant’s
use of unprocessed dairy milk; (3) The soy business allowed
out plant to operate profi tably and this allowed us to return
some money on the dairy farmers’ investment.” For a variety
of complex reasons related to this confl ict, Mr. Tsuchiya was
fi red as plant manager for Kyodo Nyugyo’s Matsumoto dairy
milk plant. Though his retirement was very near, he left the
dairy industry without regret to continue his research on soy
powder (p. 14-19).
“Meeting with Dr. Miller: During the period 1965-1969
I was involved in the founding of Taiwan Ryokusô Kogyô
Kôshi, and I took a leadership role in constructing modern
plants to make powdered soymilk and chlorella. One of the
leaders in the chlorella industry, the late Dr. Yoshio Takechi,
was in charge of the chlorella cultivation department and
I was in charge of chlorella product development and of
powdered soymilk production. In 1966 Dr. W.A. [sic, Harry
W.] Miller (who was a founder of Loma Linda Foods) and
his son visited our company, under the guidance of Dr. Taisei
of Taikei University. At that time Dr. Miller stood on the
platform atop our spray dryer, which was 20 meters tall and
had 500 liters/hour capacity. Admiring it, he said: ‘I’ve never
seen a soymilk plant which has this much facilities!’ He also
tasted the soymilk (from which the beany fl avor had been
removed) and said ‘I wonder if you have to refi ne soymilk
to this degree for Chinese people.’ His words left a strong
impression in my memory. Sure enough, when the factory
was completed and we launched our canned soymilk powder,
we heard Chinese saying, ‘This is not real soymilk. It’s an
imitation.’ But we did a good marketing campaign and soon
the soymilk started selling. When my 2-year contract ended,
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 196
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I returned to Japan. After that, the products produced in this
plant were used as food for the Taiwanese army and were not
sold to the public. Moreover, because of the chlorella boom
in Japan, the spray dryer was used for chlorella and soymilk
production stopped. Since I had great expectations for this
plant, I was greatly disappointed.
“Right after I returned to Japan in 1970, I was asked
to provide technical assistance to Keijô Shison Shokuhin
Kenkyusho, a research lab in Korea headed by pediatrician
Son Zaien. I visited there several times and even drafted
a fl oor plan, then suddenly the Japanese government told
me that the money which had been available for helping
Koreans was no longer available, so I could do no more” (p.
18-21; see p. 53 for more on soymilk in Korea). Continued.
Address: Technical consultant, Okazaki Marusan, Japan.
485. Tsuchiya, Kanji. 1982. Tônyû. Shinban [Soymilk. 2nd
ed.]. Tokyo: Shoku no Joho-sha. 223 p. First edition was
published in 1980. Illust. 17 cm. [Jap]
• Summary: Continued. Pages 31-32. In the literature of
Japan’s Muromachi period it is written that after eating
confections (tenshin such as okashi, oyatsu) they ate light
and simple food (tanpaku na tabemono). One of the latter
was called tofu no uwamono, which means yuba.
A fl ow diagram (p. 35-36) gives Chinese names of
soymilk, yuba, fermented tofu, etc.
Part III (p. 39-64) titled “Soymilk around the world,”
has chapters on the USA, Korea, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan,
Southeast Asia, and Europe. Soymilk in America (p. 47-
52) includes a 1975 table showing major manufacturers of
soymilk and soy-based infant formula, their location, and
the names of their products. Soymilk in Korea (p. 53-54): In
1968 the Keijo Shison Shokuhin Kenkyujo made soymilk
using the regular tofu making equipment adjusted to make
a product as similar as possible to dairy milk, then bottled it
in cider bottles, pasteurized it, and sold it. They made 500 to
800 bottles a day and sold it nationwide. It was brownish in
color and tasted like soybean cooking liquid; there was no
comparison between that and today’s soymilk in quality. The
head of this research lab was Dr. Son Zaien, who also ran the
children’s hospital and was a professor of pediatrics at Seoul
Medical University. As a pediatrician his concern was that
the soymilk promote the growth and health of children; he
was not concerned about its acceptance among adults. The
children accepted it within 2-3 days. Later, in May 1982,
Tsuchiya visited Korea again. They had developed their own
method of making soymilk and the soymilk plant had been
expanded. Now they produced 500,000 bottles a day (180
cc each, retort sterilized); they call it Vegemil / Vegemeal. It
contains added fat and sugar to make it closer to dairy milk.,
but the sugar content is 10%, which is sweeter than Japanese
soymilk. The plant is built on a lot of 4-5,000 tsubo and has
24 retort sterilizers; each machine has 2,500 bottles capacity.
Tôhô Yuryô, as part of a Korean technical joint venture with