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Naphtha shortages in Japan
- nkmak 4mo ago[dead]
- guessmyname 4mo agoAs someone who grew up eating Calbee snacks, I think they’ll be fine. People from my generation aren’t buying Calbee because the bag is colorful. They’re buying it because it’s Calbee and they already know what they’re getting. The packaging could be black and white and I’d still recognize it instantly. The only people I could see being briefly confused are younger consumers. Japanese packaging tends to be very colorful, so we’re all conditioned to identify products partly by color. But people adapt quickly. In fact, a black-and-white Calbee bag might end up standing out more on a crowded supermarket shelf than yet another brightly colored package. There’s also a chance this ends up being a net positive. If simpler packaging lowers costs and sales stay the same, why go back? Japanese consumers are feeling inflation more than they have in decades, and companies are under pressure too. Cutting costs in a place customers barely notice seems a lot smarter than shrinking the product or raising prices again.
- BoorishBears 4mo ago[flagged]
- no-name-here 4mo agoFrom the official guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". May be good to edit your comment to remove the first sentence.
- BoorishBears 4mo agoI won't.
- thrownthatway 4mo ago[flagged]
- ThePowerOfFuet 4mo agoAppropriate username is appropriate.
- aaron695 4mo ago[dead]
- emodendroket 4mo agoI think the dialysis supply shortage may be less of a charming quirk than the potato chip bags.
- thrownthatway 4mo ago[flagged]
- emodendroket 4mo agoI wouldn't say the present strategy worked a lot better so maybe the whole world had a point.
- thrownthatway 4mo agoI never made that argument. I just tend to thing bullies should be crushed rather than appeased.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- vkou 4mo agoSo, how are you planning on dealing with Trump and friends? Appeasement clearly isn't working.
- defrost 4mo agoSo, dialysis patients had their supplies on a regular basis, and then the Ayatollah Khamenei was assassinated (hard to get more crushed) during peace negotiations, and now dialysis patients are at risk. Seems like being a bully achieved very little .. why tear up the original hard won agreement that allowed inspection and kept the uranium enrichment in check in the first place?
- subscribed 4mo agoWhat do you mean why? His White House posted Obamas as monkeys, he hates everything Barrack achieved as a president and who he is. Trump is a scam artist as all his prior achievements show, so of course he will damage anything he can't turn into his personal profit. I bet his "negotiations" involve kickbacks for his family personally, in a similar way he "appropriated" profit from the seized Venezuelan tankers. Don't treat the guy like he was a philosopher. He's a felon, prominently mentioned in the infamous Trump-Epstein files.
- wartywhoa23 4mo agoOf course there is always an advocate for every little incremental step of the deliberate chaos that the world's helmsmen have been steering into. OBEY.
- rpozarickij 4mo ago> If simpler packaging lowers costs and sales stay the same In reality packaging is a very big part of marketing. People are drawn by vivid and bright colors, which is especially relevant in the modern world where unfortunately so many of us are living in a permanent hyper-stimulated state. It's hard to ignore well-designed packaging with tastefully chosen colors even if you're someone who is mindful about their eating/consumption choices and you know that what's inside that packaging is totally different from what you see from the outside.
- cainxinth 4mo agoAbsolutely. If packaging and marketing stopped mattering so much once the public already knows a product well, Coca-cola could have stopped spending so much on their brand a long time ago.
- tormeh 4mo agoIf packaging and marketing stopped mattering so much Coca-cola would go out of business immediately. Sugar water is cheap and simple to make. The off-brands taste just as good if not better in blind testing. The only defense they have is their brand and the amount of money they spend on marketing. Same with Red Bull.
- toast0 4mo agoPepsi tried redirecting their advertising money to community projects, but sales fell, so they went back to advertising.
- phantomathkg 4mo agoI think you are overly optimistic and forget a few key facts here. According to wiki, 8% of males and 0.5% of female suffer from colorblindness. That means for the rest of the people, the color is part of the information that our brain use subconsciously when we go and grab a bag of Calbee. Will it affect the Japanese general public? Minor inconvenience for sure. Will it affect sales? Probably for area popular by tourist? Maybe it move the needle by 1%? But what's important that's below the fold is there could be other knock on effect as naphtha is used to make other product.
- jezzamon 4mo agoFYI, those 8% of males / 0.5% females stats are not about complete colorblindness, so almost all of those people use color in their life
- throwaway173738 4mo agoYes for men mostly it’s red/green colorblindness. It’s one reason traffic lights have a uniform order and why you might get tested on which light means stop and not what color on a written test in the US.
- fieldcny 4mo agoYour response shows how much trouble the west is in, you are completely missing the fact that this is the leading edge of a petroleum supply shortage that is going to have significant and painful effects on all those who are not prepared. At this point the United States is the least prepared country in the world and Americans are going to be the hardest hit, simply because we have the most to lose. Papering over the canary in the coal mine never saved the coal miners. (Edit spelling)
- johnea 4mo agoAfter studying Japanese language and culture for the last 15 years, and spending about 6 months there in total, I would say they have a massive over-packaging problem in general. I've never seen a place throw away more plastics than in Japan. If the current oil situation forces a reworking of this system, I'd say all in all, that's an upside.
- gryson 4mo agoJapan is nowhere near the worst for plastic waste per capita, and it has very high recycling rates. Rely more on statistics and less on personal observation.
- armada651 4mo agoSince very few types of plastic are actually recyclable most of it ends up being burned despite being separately collected, so I don't think you can simply discount the recycled plastic from the plastic waste being produced.
- gryson 4mo agoJapan burns about half of its collected plastic via thermal recycling (recovering the energy) and recycles about a third into new products. The key point is that Japan recycles 85% of its plastic waste, which is excellent compared with a country like the US that recycles about 10%. And, the per capita plastic use in the US is far more than in Japan. This whole point pops up on the internet so frequently because tourists go to Japan and see lots of individually packaged items in supermarkets and convenience stores. Yes, there is room for improvement there, but overall the situation is not as bad as many countries and probably doesn't deserve the attention it gets.
- trillic 4mo agoBurning trash is recycling now?
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- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- nogajun 4mo agoAs a result of the Takaichi administration directing subsidies exclusively toward gasoline, oil companies have stopped prioritizing naphtha production, leading to a shortage of daily necessities. The fact that Calbee’s snack packaging has turned monochrome is a direct consequence of this. The Takaichi administration attempted to pressure Calbee into reversing this decision. What is even more alarming is that more than half of the Japanese public supports the Takaichi administration, which is implementing such absurd policies.
- HDThoreaun 4mo agoHow much naphtha is used to color a bag of chips? I figured it was like considerably less than a milliliter. Is that really a significant cost even if naptha prices 10x?
- alephnerd 4mo ago> As a result of the Takaichi administration directing subsidies exclusively toward gasoline, oil companies have stopped prioritizing naphtha production Not exactly. Japan only produces around 40% of it's naphtha domestically, with 40% from the Middle East and the other 20% from other sources. Much of the pain arose from supply shock for the 40% sources from the ME. That said, much of the pain around naphata is transitional, as most Japanese imports of naphtha have now shifted away from the Middle East to Algeria, the US, and India [0][1]. Mind you, this is eating significantly into margins, but it is survivable as this isn't Japan's first black swan event of similar calibre - the late 2000s and early 2010s oil price shock occurred during a much more difficult macro environment for Japan, and at least according to ONG analysts [2] (behind login, as most actionable commodities news is) Japan has the reserves needed for around a year of production assuming Japan didn't begin shifting sourcing, which it did. I'd recommend reading Overseas Energy Investment of Korea and Japan: How did Two East Asian Resources-Rare Industrial Giants Respond to Energy Security Challenges by Oh Seong-ik [3] to learn more about the Korean and Japanese energy security policy - both are using the same methodology, strategies, and contract structures, and despite public rhetoric, a large portion of younger Koreans targeting the Blue House and/or high finance still try to attend Waseda for their undergrad if SKY, KAIST, or Ewha doesn't work out. [0] - https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/iran-tensions/iran-war/japan-on-tenterhooks-over-naphtha-even-as-us-india-supply-rises https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/iran-tensions/iran-war/jap... [1] - https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2832935-japan-s-cracker-run-rates-to-recover-apic-delegates https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-marke... [2] - https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2800646 https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/280064... [3] - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0285-9 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0285-9
- mock-possum 4mo agoDo we say ‘hail corporate’ here too? Because… this feels a lot like viral marketing for whatever this brand is to me.
- jnakano89 4mo agoBuried near the end: Nisshin Seifun Welna stopped printing cooking time on their spaghetti packaging tape. There's a Japanese consumer somewhere squinting at the package trying to remember if it was 8 mins or 10 mins. This is what "globalized supply chain" looks like up close.
- Barrin92 4mo ago>This is what "globalized supply chain" looks like up close. If that's the extent of it I'd say they're doing relatively fine. People have been taking these events like covid as some glaring warning of globalized supply chains but given that we've had like ten major supply chain shocks in half as many years I feel like the supply chains are good actually. If you told me ten years ago that North Koreans are fighting in Europe, Russia's oil facilities are being hit by drones, Houthis are launching rockets into space and the largest trade route in the world is blocked I'd have guessed it's worse than 4% inflation and Japan's running out of printer ink
- pibaker 4mo agoWhat is the alternative to imported fossil fuel product for a country like Japan?
- Arn_Thor 4mo agoIf they (and the rest of us for that matter) weren't burning so much of it, there'd be more left over for other uses. (with the obvious caveat that less demand means less production, which would mean there wouldn't be a lot of surplus. But in a world where we don't burn so much oil, it probably wouldn't be worth either party closing the Strait anyway...)
- ktallett 4mo agoJapan need to use far less of it. Their levels of waste in plastic and so on, is still ridiculously high in comparison with many places.
- sfifs 4mo agoGiven their precarious domestic supply situation, it's been surprising they haven't chosen to lead the world on electrification of transport. China had much the same equation and have clearly gone through other way. In my recent visit, I was told in big cities buying a gasoline powdered vehicle takes months or years in permits but an electric vehicle can be bought instantly.
- georgefloid 4mo ago[dead]
- georgefloid 4mo ago[flagged]
- georgefloid 4mo ago[flagged]
- no-name-here 4mo agoIs this sarcasm?
- kelnos 4mo agoGiven the age of the account, trolling (perhaps even of the bot variety) more likely. Flagged & dead now.
- ronnier 4mo agoHn has at least one article in the top 25 related to Japan every day, even about the most obscure topics.
- Tor3 4mo agoNaphta may sound obscure, but it's the base for a ton of products. I actually had no idea, until the building / construction companies around here started getting into serious trouble (I wrote about that in another comment).
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- kdheiwns 4mo agoJapan is currently undergoing an oil crisis that the government is desperately attempting to hide. Companies have been saying they don't have the supplies they need for continued operation, and some are sucking it up by cutting back on manufacturing or eating a loss out of fear of retribution from the PM or her incredibly loyal following. Other companies have said that they're facing shortages, but if you don't read/believe the news, it's easy to ignore. Calbee is the first large corporation to make it unavoidably apparent that there are shortages, and that if things don't change, it's going to be much worse than mere ink shortages. As a personal example, medicine that my doctor prescribed used to come in individually wrapped packs. It was like this for years. Due to plastic shortages, it's now all put into a single bag. Environmentally speaking it's better and I don't mind. But it's a massive shift and this is just the start of the shortage. With no solution in sight, and with shortage resolution taking months even if the war ended tomorrow, it's going to get worse and there's no way around it.
- Synaesthesia 4mo agoMaybe the point of the Iran war was to boost the US economy, relative to East Asia, which is dependent on Middle Eastern oil and gas, while the US is an exporter. I mean look who benefits from this, arms companies and oil/gas companies are having a bonanza.
- dnnddidiej 4mo agoOr makes ROTW more resiliant. I sped up my solar, battery and EV buy because of this for example. The panels will land in ROTW.
- the_gipsy 4mo agoThe point was to stop oil trades of "petro non-dollars", just like Venezuela. If countries start getting away with selling oil in other currencies, then they wouldn't funnel back all these vasts amounts of dollars into the S&P 500 and the American economy would collapse.
- tardedmeme 4mo agoWell Iran is letting ships through if they trade in petro-non-dollars (mostly yuan) and pay a fee, and the American blockade also lets those through if they're not coming from Iran itself. At this point the cheapest oil is the oil bought in yuan. Massive own goal there.
- kasey_junk 4mo agoAnd the Russian sanctions that pushed nearly all Russian oil into yuan, or the current US president telling India to trade with Russia in direct currency contracts? Iran hasn’t been dollar denominated for decades at this point, they wish they could be! It would make their oil more valuable.
- dnnddidiej 4mo agoThey had a chance to embrace the black/white medium for somethink striking and attention grabbing but looks like a bad photocopy of the original packaging.
- ssl-3 4mo agoSure. They could have even taken cues from Google's Material Design, which emphasizes monochromaticity. But Material Design is such boring dredge at this point that I think I actually prefer the lazy photocopy style that is shown instead. :)
- dnnddidiej 4mo agoOh no not Material Design. One idea is if they had a monocrome design from say the 50's use that. Or get a true artist to come up with something.
- burgerone 4mo agoVery nicely factual and non-clickbait article for once.
- Danox 4mo agoThose bags look pretty good to me no nonsense color.
- Aboutplants 4mo agoMy first thought was “boy, an American company could copycat this and stand out immediately in the color mess of snack aisles”
- ThinkingGuy 4mo agoUnsurprisingly, XKCD has already contemplated this: https://xkcd.com/993/ https://xkcd.com/993/
- Symbiote 4mo agoBritish supermarkets had this long before the XKCD, though they've since reverted to more traditional design. Search Tesco Value or Sainsbury's Basics for the 1990s version.
- poncho_romero 4mo agoCanada too, with all yellow No Name products at Loblaw's.
- officialchicken 4mo ago[dead]
- georgefloid 4mo ago[flagged]
- georgefloid 4mo ago[dead]
- minarul22 4mo ago[flagged]
- tenderfault 4mo agoI don't know Calbee snacks. We grew up with different chemicals in this area. BUT. I must say, the packaging looks so much better in black and white. It makes me think it's an honest product, whatever that means. Good feeling. Put your name on it, black on white. Sell it.
- 1970-01-01 4mo agoLittle sympathy for Japan. Take a page out of the USA playbook and start hauling in Russian dark ships filled with Naphtha. They have an entire naval fleet at idle while their internal needs get worse.