NINOSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Baumkuchen originated in Germany but has become a wildly popular sweet in Japan, where a prisoner of war on a small western island started making the treat that has thrived in its new homeland.
Today, the confectionery known as “tree cake” because of the resemblance to a trunk with rings is considered a symbol of longevity and prosperity in Japan, where Baumkuchen festivals are regularly held.
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Staff and participants try out baked Baumkuchen, a German layered cake, during a workshop of Juchheim Ninoshima Welcome Center and Outdoor Activity Camp Monday, July 7, 2025, at Ninoshima island in Hiroshima, western Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A vendor sorts articles at a baumkuchen store on its opening day in Tokyo, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Staff make Baumkuchen, a German layered cake, during a workshop of Juchheim Ninoshima Welcome Center and Outdoor Activity Camp Monday, July 7, 2025, at Ninoshima island in Hiroshima, western Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Staff and participants cut Baumkuchen, a German layered cake, during a workshop of Juchheim Ninoshima Welcome Center and Outdoor Activity Camp Monday, July 7, 2025, at Ninoshima island in Hiroshima, western Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Japanese adaptations, including those using maccha and sweet potatoes, are popular gifts at weddings and birthdays. Baumkuchen is sold in gift boxes at luxury department stores and individually wrapped, smaller versions can be found at convenience stores.
The sweet's early years, however, are associated with a catastrophic earthquake and two world wars.
Making Baumkuchen is one of most popular activities on Ninoshima, just a 20-minute ferry ride from Hiroshima. But visitors also must learn the sleepy island’s role in Japan’s wartime history, according to Kazuaki Otani, head of the Juccheim Ninoshima Welcome Center.
At the outdoor center built over the site of a prisoner of war camp, amateur bakers pour batter on a bamboo pole and roast the mixture over a charcoal fire. As the surface turns light brown, a new layer is poured, creating brown rings as the cake grows thicker and the sweet smell wafts through the picnic area.
This is how a German confectioner named Karl Juchheim baked Baumkuchen while he was imprisoned on the island more than 100 years ago.
During Japan’s militarist expansion period beginning in the late 1890s, Ninoshima served as a military quarantine station as nearby Hiroshima developed into a major military hub. About 4,700 mostly German civilians and servicemembers were kept at 16 camps across Japan during World War I. The German prisoners at Ninoshima were given “a certain degree of freedom” and allowed to cook, Otani said.
Juchheim was running a bakery in Qingdao, China, then a German territory, when he was captured by the Japanese in 1915. He arrived on Ninoshima in 1917 with some 500 German POWs and is believed to have tested his Baumkuchen recipe there, Otani said.
When the war ended in 1918, Juchheim and about 200 fellow POWs stayed in Japan. In March 1919, Juchheim’s Baumkuchen commercially debuted in Japan at the Hiroshima Prefectural Products Exhibition. His handmade cake was hugely popular and attracted a big crowd of Japanese visitors, historical documents show.
The confectioner opened a pastry shop in Yokohama, near Tokyo, in 1922. The 1923 Great Kanto quake destroyed the business and forced Juchheim to move his family to the western port city of Kobe, where he opened a coffee shop serving Baumkuchen. That store was leveled by U.S. firebombings on Kobe two months before the end of World War II.
Yet he remained and grew the business in Kobe, where Juchheim Co., Ltd., still operates as one of Japan’s top confectioners with the help of his wife Elise and devoted Japanese staff.
The atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later killed more than 210,000 by the end of that year. In the aftermath, about 10,000 severely injured victims were shipped from Hiroshima to Ninoshima for treatment and temporary shelter. Most died there and many of their remains have yet to be found, experts say.
Juchheim died of illness at a Kobe hotel on Aug. 14, 1945, the day before Japan announced its surrender.
“His baking was an expression of his wish for peace,” Otani said. “By sharing with visitors what things were like back then, I hope it gives people an opportunity to reflect on peace.”
Staff and participants try out baked Baumkuchen, a German layered cake, during a workshop of Juchheim Ninoshima Welcome Center and Outdoor Activity Camp Monday, July 7, 2025, at Ninoshima island in Hiroshima, western Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A vendor sorts articles at a baumkuchen store on its opening day in Tokyo, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Staff make Baumkuchen, a German layered cake, during a workshop of Juchheim Ninoshima Welcome Center and Outdoor Activity Camp Monday, July 7, 2025, at Ninoshima island in Hiroshima, western Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Staff and participants cut Baumkuchen, a German layered cake, during a workshop of Juchheim Ninoshima Welcome Center and Outdoor Activity Camp Monday, July 7, 2025, at Ninoshima island in Hiroshima, western Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 9, 2025--
Alipay+, Ant International’s global wallet gateway services, revealed an 18% increase in Alipay+-supported QR code payment transactions, with total payment volume (TPV) growing 16% year-on-year in South Korea, as more tourists use Alipay+ partner wallets and bank apps to make digital payments for a range of services, from beauty clinic treatments and transportation to night market food stalls.
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South Korea is among the top destinations for tourists from regions such as Southeast Asia and the Chinese mainland, with the greatest number of tourists making transactions supported by Alipay+ in cities like Seoul, Jeju Island and Busan. In 2025, Alipay+ transactions for beauty clinic treatments, transportation and F&B were among the fastest-growing categories for tourists.
Apart from Chinese mainland tourists, the biggest spenders by the total number of Alipay+-supported transactions in South Korea were tourists from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Macao and the Philippines, growing rapidly in terms of both transactions and total payment volume.
As of November 2025, Alipay+ has connected 21 international digital wallets and bank apps to over 2 million merchants in South Korea, enabling tourists to pay with the apps they use at home. In September, Alipay+ brought Japan’s leading cashless payment service PayPay to the country, allowing Japanese travellers to make payments easily at South Korea’s stores and merchants wherever the Alipay+ logo is displayed.
Alipay+ trends in South Korea 1
From Jan-Nov 2025:
Top inbound Alipay+-supported transactions by region:
1) Chinese mainland - Alipay
2) Hong Kong - AlipayHK
3) Malaysia - Touch 'n Go e-Wallet
4) Japan - PayPay
5) Macao - Mpay
6) The Philippines - GCash
South Korean cities with the most spending via Alipay+:
1) Seoul
2) Jeju Island
3) Incheon
4) Gyeonggido
5) Busan
Empowering Local Businesses
Alipay+ covers 2 million merchants in South Korea, most of which are small and medium enterprises. Tourists are able to make payments seamlessly in a broad range of scenarios – from the moment they arrive and ride the airport limousine bus at Incheon International Airport, to paying for food and beverages in convenience stores and at cafés like Mega Coffee, or while shopping at retail stores for cosmetics and skincare products across the country.
Merchants in South Korea are also able to use various Alipay+ solutions to help them in their businesses, such as joining the A+ Rewards, a digital marketing and user growth platform, which allows them to offer tailored promotions powered by privacy-preserving computing and AI technologies.
Travellers can also discover services offered by global travel partners directly within Alipay+ Voyager, an AI-powered, built-in travel agent that is integrated directly into partner mobile wallets like Alipay, AlipayHK, Touch 'n Go eWallet and GCash. This AI agent will assist travellers in itinerary planning, booking, and purchasing in-merchant offerings, allowing merchants to expand their customer base and engage mobile-savvy global consumers in a more direct and efficient manner.
“Alipay+ is committed to driving sustainable travel, by empowering local businesses while enhancing travellers’ experiences, helping them to travel to more places and ensuring that they can pay easily with their home wallets abroad,” said Weixiao Jiang, General Manager North Asia and North America, Alipay+, Ant International. “Our AI-driven solutions ensure that merchants, big or small, can expand their business by tapping on international tourists to expand their customer base.”
Alipay+ users can pay easily on popular South Korea transport networks
Alipay+ has also partnered with local bus and taxi networks to accept digital fare payments for Alipay+ partner wallet and app users. In Seoul, tourists can use Alipay+ partner wallets for payments in over 70,000 taxis and more than 100 airport limousine buses from Incheon Airport. On Jeju Island, over 1,200 buses accept Alipay+ payments, while over 15,000 eZL taxis in Daegu also accept digital payments via Alipay+.
Chinese tourists can also use a mini-program on Alipay, an Alipay+ partner wallet, to buy tickets from Korea’s railway operator Korail Networks, and NAMANE x Alipay+ transportation pass, and book beauty clinic visits at popular clinics like PPEUM, Toxnfill, GU and over 1,500 others via a dedicated K-beauty mini-program.
Helping South Korean travellers pay seamlessly abroad
Alipay+ has brought South Korea’s three leading wallets – Kakao Pay, Naver Pay and Toss Pay to over 100 markets, allowing South Korean travellers to make payments when travelling with their digital wallets.
Kakao Pay users are also able to make contactless payments enabled by near-field communication (NFC) technology at more than 150 million Mastercard merchants worldwide, supported by Alipay+’s NFC payment solution.
As the global wallet gateway of Ant International, Alipay+ connects 40 mobile payment partners including e-wallets and bank apps with over 1.8 billion user accounts, to over 150 million merchants across more than 100 markets. Alipay+ also partners with 11 national payment networks.
About Alipay+
Ant International's Alipay+ is a global wallet gateway with cross-border payment and digitisation services that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers enjoy seamless payments a broad choice of deals and the convenience of digital services using their preferred payment app/e-wallet while travelling abroad. Many small and medium-sized businesses already use Alipay+ digital tools to enhance efficiency and achieve omni-channel growth.
Case Study: Alipay+ Local Partnerships with i-Aurora, Shinsegae Group
As South Korea becomes increasingly popular as a tourist destination, Alipay+ has linked up with local companies such as i-Aurora to allow foreign visitors to make seamless payments by using their existing mobile payment wallets.
Tourists who already use Alipay+’s partner wallets in their home countries are able to make cashless payments at various merchants in South Korea, such as street vendors at Myeongdong Night Market by scanning i-Aurora’s NAMANE payment QR code.
“Our partnership with Alipay+ helps to connect street vendors and local merchants to global travellers in South Korea by enabling them to accept QR code payments, be it at tourist attractions or traditional markets,” said Youngsu Chang, CEO of i-Aurora. “We strive to ensure that customers are able to make digital payments conveniently and securely.”
Both companies have also joined hands to launch an Alipay+ transportation card that lets Chinese tourists use Alipay to pay for subway and bus rides.
Alipay+ and i-Aurora have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop STAN, a tech-culture platform that integrates K-POP concerts, experiences, exhibitions, and merchandise in one ecosystem that enables users to easily enjoy cultural content both online and offline.
Separately, Alipay+ also has a long-standing partnership with Shinsegae Group, where Alipay+ is accepted as a payment method in Shinsegae department stores and duty-free stores and other major affiliates, with Shinsegae often running promotional campaigns and offers for customers who opt to pay with Alipay+ partner e-wallets.
“Through our collaboration with Alipay+, we have been able to expand our international customer base and provide them with Shinsegae’s exclusive benefits as well as a convenient shopping and payment experience that helps solidify Shinsegae’s position as a leading duty-free and retail brand,” said the Jongwoo Kwak,Senior Vice President of the Marketing Division at Shinsegae Duty Free.
1All Alipay+ data included are year-to-year comparison between Jan-Nov 2025 and Jan-Nov 2024
At Myeongdong Night Market, tourists using Alipay+’s partner payment apps can scan NAMANE’s QR codes for convenient digital transactions
Weixiao Jiang, General Manager North Asia and North America, Alipay+, Ant International
