John Clifford Wilkinson (1852-1923) left his native Leeds in 1872, at the age of 20, to work for the trading company Hunter and Co. in Kobe, Japan. Some years later, in 1889, he was out hunting in the Takarazuka area when he stumbled on a place where naturally-carbonated mineral water bubbled out of the ground. This was the start of Wilkinson Tansan Mineral Water (‘tansan’ means ‘carbonated’) and its various spin-offs, which eventually grew into one of the largest beverage companies in Japan.

Jason visited Takarazuka last summer to find out more, and was impressed to see the water still bubbling up just where Wilkinson first found it, in the Muko River, as well as in the basement of the Wakamizu Hotel. Sadly, not much else tangible remains. The Wilkinson Tansan Hotel is long gone. The enormous bottling plant that overlooked the river (and was used to manufacture seaplanes during WWII) is now a block of flats. And the Wilkinson family mansion – an architectural wonder of its day – was demolished in the early 1990s by the neighbouring supermarket for use as car park. Jason will retrace the fascinating story of the Wilkinson family business in Japan.

About the contributors

Jason James

Jason James is Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Having been fascinated by Japan on a choir tour at the age of 13, he chose to read Japanese Studies at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating First Class with Distinction in 1987. After working for many years in the financial industry as a Japan specialist, his interests took a more cultural turn when he became Director of the British Council in Japan in 2007, and then DG at Daiwa in 2011.