Photo/Illutration A can of the first generation of Coca-Cola, which went on sale in Japan for the first time in 1965 (Yumi Nakayama)

Officials of Coca-Cola (Japan) Co. and Lotte Co. expressed amazement on April 15 as they accepted a “time capsule” from a world of snow and ice hand-delivered by the head of the 61st Japanese research expedition team to Antarctica.

Its contents, a can of the first type of Coca-Cola sold in Japan half a century ago and some Lotte Cool Mint chewing gum wrapped in the company's first-used packaging, were in a cache of emergency food discovered by the team last autumn.

At the request of the companies, which learned about the discovery through news reports, the team brought the unopened items back to Japan.

After returning home this spring, Yuichi Aoyama, head of the team's wintering party, met representatives of Coca-Cola and Lotte at the National Institute of Polar Research, which dispatches Japanese expeditions, in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, and handed over the goods.

“I’m proud that our product provided a refreshing feeling to Japanese research expedition teams on extremely demanding missions half a century ago,” said Akino Sasaki, a member of Coca-Cola’s marketing department.

“It’s very fascinating that our chewing gum, whose package design was inspired by Antarctica, returned home,” said Shota Mori, a member of Lotte’s branding strategy department. “I want to have it analyzed to see what condition it's in.”

The discovery came in September last year when four members of the expedition team traveled to the site known as Mukai Rocks, about 8 kilometers from Japan’s Syowa Station, for observation activities.

The rusted can of Coca-Cola bore a label written in katakana and didn't have a stay-on tab for opening it.

The design was used for the first Coca-Cola introduced to the Japanese market in 1965, according to Coca-Cola. To drink it, you had to make a hole in the can with an opener.

The product was available in the market for only one to two years, a company official said, adding that no stock of that particular product is left at the beverage maker.

The chewing gum comes in a package featuring a penguin, symbolizing Antarctica. The design was used for Cool Mint when it was first released in 1960, according to Lotte.

Eizaburo Nishibori, the head of the first wintering party, requested in 1956 that Lotte develop a special gum for Japan's first expedition team prior to its departure for Antarctica, records by the company and former members of the Japanese expedition teams show.

Lotte presented them with a gum mixed with vitamins and minerals that can be preserved for a year and five months without deteriorating despite traveling through the equator or areas where the temperature can drop to 50 degrees below zero.

A can of stewed beef and vegetables, made in February 1965, bearing a label saying it was a Maritime Self-Defense Force emergency ration, was found with the cola and gum. 

The MSDF began operating Japan’s second icebreaker, the Fuji, that year.

A former member of the 7th expedition recalled that the head of his team went to a location near Mukai Rocks in January 1966 and that he may have left the food on that occasion.

Teams from the first to the 10th Japanese Antarctic expedition used Mukai Rocks to land in Antarctica after their voyage through the sea ice.

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