Packaging

42 food Marketing & Technology • June 2013

The world’s third largest economy has fought many battles in the last decade. If the 2011 earthquake has left the coun-try with insufficient packaging sup-plies for its food industries, it has also led industries and consumers to adjust to the 21st century’s new challenges.

Japanese consumers bear an ambigu-ous relationship with their packaging.Quite well-known is their tendency for over-packaging: hygiene and fear of bugs and microbes can be one reason for what would be regarded as “over-packaged” everywhere else in the world. All fruits and vegetables are filmed and wrapped, even bananas!

Keen on new technologies, Japanese consumers tend to embrace novelty for their packaged food: microwave packs, revolutionary pouches, warming-up containers and self heating cans. But the country’s heavy reliance on imports has led to the urge of major recycling need for obvious economic reasons. The Japanese system works as fol-lows: packaging producers and brand owners pay a fee on material type and weight per kilogram. This fee goes to recyclers to fund shortfalls in the price of recycled material.

Packaging must be easy to separate as the consumer has to deconstruct

the package. The numbers of bins in a household can be between ten and fif-teen and the rules are very strict.

Now called “the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake”, the 2011 earthquake and Tsunami brought major devastation and several unexpected consequences. First, one notices a clear resource sav-ings exercise for products.

Is Packaging Fun in Japan coming to an End? Dominique Huret from Cape Decision reports on the numerous Japanese contrasts.

Photo: Cape Decision

Packaging

43food Marketing & Technology • June 2013

In the direct aftermath, serious short-ages of basics materials like PP led to simplification of caps for bottles and the lack of colorants forced brand owners to collaborate and use generics white caps for various products and brands.

Two years after, many white caps are still used on many non-premium brands. Also in the beverage sectors, the Japanese industry has set up an agreement to ban all colored or tinted PET bottles. In a first stage, brand own-ers went for full sleeves to keep their brand identity but now the tendency goes to smaller wraparound labels.

Always to save resources, one notices a clear move from glass to PET and stand out flexible pouches for wine and sake. Both convenience and recyclability remain high on the agenda.

New solutions have come on the shelves with bare bottles with product infor-mation on the outside sleeves only and rigid bottle of various product sitting next to their refillable pouch. Brand owners are adjusting to new customer demands.

It took only a few months for the larg-est packaging Japanese producers to get back to normal. But production of packaging top priority shifted to stricter resource control.

Greater emphasis has since been set on three priorities: energy management (lithium batteries, photovoltaic with

Municipality sorting/ recycling board

Mechanical / pneumatic conveyingProcessing screws

Filling / emptyingBig Bag handling

Feeding / dosingMixing / breaking up

Dust extraction systemsWeighing / controlling / regulating

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night storage), site diversification for the production and seismic resistant build-ings. By doing only the basics to put the product on the shelves or deliberately choosing a certain austerity, the land of packaging fun might well adjust to the new century.

Key No. 81621