80th Anniversary of Yeonyanggaeng, Originally Japanese Military Ration [Delicious Story]

The Origin of K-Yeonyanggaeng
First Produced at the Nagaoka Confectionery Factory in Namyeong-dong, Seoul
Designated as Military Supply for Japanese Troops in 1927 and Adopted as Combat Ration
Linked to Japan's Plan to Turn the Korean Peninsula into a Military Logistics Base

Editor's NoteThe earliest confectionery is said to have been discovered in the ancient Mesopotamian civilization. Confectionery has accompanied every moment of human history. From biscuits to chocolate to ice cream, we bring you delicious stories behind the snacks we love.

Haitai Confectionery's Yeonyanggaeng has been produced continuously for 80 years since 1945. It holds the honor of being the longest-running domestically produced confectionery product, but in fact, Yeonyanggaeng originated from a military supply food factory of the Japanese Nagaoka Confectionery established in Seoul during the Japanese colonial period.

The First Confectionery on the Korean Peninsula Made at a Japanese Confectionery Company Factory

Haitai Confectionery Yeonyanggaeng. Haitai Mall Homepage

Yeonyanggaeng is originally a traditional Japanese confectionery. It is called yokan (ようかん·yokan), made by mixing mashed sweet red beans, sugar, starch syrup, and agar, then boiling it down into a solid block. When the full-scale Japanese colonial period began, Japanese capital flowed into the Korean Peninsula, and at that time, the food processing company ‘Nagaoka Confectionery’ established a confectionery factory in Namyeong-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. It is said that the first domestic yokan and caramel were produced at this factory.

After liberation, Nagaoka Confectionery left for Japan, leaving behind the Namyeong-dong factory and equipment. In 1945, four people including Park Byung-gyu, who was an accounting staff at Nagaoka, took over the factory and established Haitai Confectionery, thus creating Korea’s first domestically produced confectionery product, 'Haitai Yeonyanggaeng.'

Supplied as Combat Rations to Japanese Soldiers

The Yanggaeng factory, which was the Nagaoka Confectionery Seoul Namyeong-dong factory until 1945, became the first domestic confectionery factory after being acquired by Haitai. The photo shows the Namyeong-dong confectionery factory, estimated to be from the 1950s to 1960s, preserved in the National Archives. Photo by Yonhap News

Why did Nagaoka Confectionery establish a yokan factory in Korea? Yokan, a traditional Japanese confectionery, must have been a very unfamiliar food to Koreans at the time. This yokan factory was deeply connected to Japan’s colonial policies.

It is well known that during the Japanese colonial period, the Governor-General of Korea aimed to use the Korean Peninsula as a logistics base. The Governor-General especially focused on producing grains such as rice, beans, and barley to supply combat rations to Japanese troops deployed overseas. To this end, the first domestic futures exchange, the Incheon Rice Exchange, was opened in Incheon.

The appearance of Incheon Port in 1928. Rice harvested from all over the country is piled up for export. Incheon Metropolitan City

Yokan was also one of the combat rations and a key item to maintain soldiers’ morale and fighting strength. Soldiers were issued high-calorie confectionery to replenish their energy. The US and British armies comforted their soldiers with chocolate, candy, and coffee powder. For the Japanese army, yokan served that purpose. The Nagaoka Confectionery Namyeong-dong factory was designated as a military supply factory for the Japanese troops stationed in Korea in 1927, and Koreans employed there produced yokan and caramel for Japanese soldiers.

Also Became a Production Base for Agar, an Essential Ingredient of Yokan

The production of agar (umu) in Miryang, Gyeongnam. Photo by Yonhap News

There is another reason why the yokan factory was established in Korea: agar, an essential ingredient of yokan. Agar is a jelly-like food made by boiling and cooling a type of seaweed called tengusa, known as umu in Korea.

Agar production began domestically in 1913 by a Japanese entrepreneur, and especially along the sea coasts of Jeju, where seaweed was abundant, agar production flourished. At that time, Japan’s aggressive external expansion policies and successive wars increased the demand for agar more than ever, and naturally, the Korean Peninsula became a key base for Japanese agar and yokan production. Today, about 90% of domestic umu is produced in Jeju (Statistics Korea), and most of the approximately 300 tons produced are exported to Japan.

After Overcoming Adversity, Became a Korean Confectionery ‘Steady Seller’

Although Korean yokan began as a military supply product, Yeonyanggaeng has now risen to become an undisputed representative Korean confectionery.

There were several crises when the production of Yeonyanggaeng almost ceased. During the Korean War that broke out in 1950, Haitai Confectionery had to abandon its main factory and flee, but later resumed production by moving pots and boilers to Busan.

As domestic confectionery diversified, there were concerns that Yeonyanggaeng might become a ‘nostalgic food,’ but it later gained recognition as an energy food for hiking and steadily secured its place as a steady seller. In February last year, the popularity of singer BIBI’s single album ‘Bamyanggaeng’ caused Yeonyanggaeng sales to surge again. According to market research firm AC Nielsen Korea, Yeonyanggaeng has surpassed cumulative sales of 780 billion KRW and sales volume of 3.5 billion units from 1945 to 2023.