(7 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo – 18 July 2025
1. Display of Baumkuchen inside the shop
2. Customers queue inside the shop to buy Baumkuchen
3. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Takao Yamamoto, Club Harie CEO:
"Germany was the origin, but now there’s something like a distinctly Japanese Baumkuchen culture, and I really do feel that. It’s safe to say it’s originally German, but the Japanese have adapted it in their own way, and now there are so many different flavours and variations. I get the feeling that people are starting to see it as a Japanese version of Baumkuchen.”
4. Yamamoto introducing some of the products inside store
5. Various of different types of Baumkuchen sold at the shop
6. SOUNDBITE (Japanese), Kiyoaki Nakamura, customer:
“I like how it’s fluffy. There are dedicated Baumkuchen festivals at department stores. I enjoy going to them too.”
7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese), Miki Fukumoto, customer:
“It tastes simple. Not many dislike it and people of all age groups can enjoy it.”
8. Customer picking up product
9. Staff in shop
STORYLINE:
On a hot summer’s morning over a dozen people queue outside for the opening of a new cake shop in central Tokyo.
They are eager to be among the first to get the branch’s exclusive batch of Baumkechen – a traditional German spit cake.
The shop’s prized sweet is known for its moist and puffy sponge.
“I like how fluffy it is,” says Kiyoaki Nakamura, a Baumkuchen fan who has been queuing for hours ahead of the opening of the new branch of a well-known Japanese confectioner: Club Harie.
"It has a simple taste…people of all age groups can enjoy it,” says another customer Miki Fukumoto, trying to explain why the cake so popular in Japan.
Baumkuchen means ‘Tree cake’ in German due to its appearance resembling rings of a tree when you slice the cake. It’s believed it was introduced by a German baker who was imprisoned in Japan during World War I and it became popular when he stayed on during peacetime.
Many Japanese associate the appearance of tree rings with longevity and prosperity, and it is often given as a gift at weddings and birthdays.
"Germany was the origin, but now there’s something like a distinctly Japanese Baumkuchen culture, and I really do feel that," says the CEO of confectioner Club Harie, Takao Yamamoto.
Despite its origins in Europe, Baumkuchen has become one of Japan’s most beloved sweets.
The cake is widely available in Japan in an array of flavours from matcha to various seasonal fruits.
It is sold as a luxury item at department stores, while also being available at convenience stores like 7-Eleven as snacks. Baumkuchen festivals are held in different parts of the country.
AP Video by Ayaka McGill and Reeno Hashimoto
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