alt.hn

5/30/2026 at 2:20:40 AM

Naphtha shortages in Japan

 https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h02783/

by takakaze

5/30/2026 at 2:56:24 AM

As 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.

by guessmyname

5/30/2026 at 6:47:58 AM

> 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.

by rpozarickij

5/30/2026 at 12:46:50 PM

Absolutely. 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.

by cainxinth

5/30/2026 at 1:57:34 PM

If 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.

by tormeh

5/31/2026 at 4:24:03 AM

Pepsi tried redirecting their advertising money to community projects, but sales fell, so they went back to advertising.

by toast0

5/30/2026 at 7:50:42 PM

Your 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)

by fieldcny

5/30/2026 at 6:03:42 AM

I think the dialysis supply shortage may be less of a charming quirk than the potato chip bags.

by emodendroket

5/30/2026 at 6:56:03 AM

[flagged]

by thrownthatway

5/30/2026 at 7:03:47 AM

I wouldn't say the present strategy worked a lot better so maybe the whole world had a point.

by emodendroket

5/30/2026 at 7:10:04 AM

I never made that argument.

I just tend to thing bullies should be crushed rather than appeased.

by thrownthatway

5/30/2026 at 7:52:05 AM

That's how the whole world is feeling about America now, yes. Nobody outside of America and Israel were ever remotely bothered by Iran. Especially not Japan, which had a good relationship with Iran going back a century. It's really just absurd how America decided to attack a partner of Japan and damage our economy so much for zero benefit whatsoever.

by kdheiwns

5/30/2026 at 11:01:46 AM

> Nobody outside of America and Israel were ever remotely bothered by Iran

That is not true. Saudi Arabia has been fighting a proxy war with them for years. The EU and Uk have had sanctions on them for years. Lots of people care about their treatment of religious minorities, gays and women.

by graemep

5/30/2026 at 11:13:10 AM

Europe had sanctions to avoid the American sanctions on places that didn't have sanctions, they'd rather trade with America than with Iran, but they don't actually care themselves.

by tardedmeme

5/30/2026 at 12:13:41 PM

When did the US threaten sanctions on western Europe?

Much of Europe has a problem with Russia and Iran is an ally of Russia. They supply each other with weapons.

by graemep

5/30/2026 at 1:11:30 PM

> Lots of people care about their treatment of religious minorities, gays and women.

I'm really not sure which country you're talking about here. Saudi Arabia? Because Saudi Arabia is even worse than Iran in this respect but they're not being bombed. Should they be bombed?

by kdheiwns

5/30/2026 at 5:13:01 PM

I am aware of that. Its a list and those people are a different item to Saudi Arabia. I mean people in lots of countries as a counter example to 'nobody'

by graemep

5/30/2026 at 8:17:03 AM

>zero benefit whatsoever.

There were benefits achieved. I'm assuming you're a traditional Japaneese person that's not familiar with USA drama-level politics. But these drama-level politics are now affecting the fate of the whole world*.

There is/was a children lovers ring which was gradually being revealed to have ties to many important people. People ready to start wars and cause suffering of millions just to steer the public opinion away from revelations on this child-lovers ring. You can learn more about this ring by googling it's apparent leader, whos name rhymes with Frankenstein. It looks like a man, who used to be named Milejkowski and has Polish roots, also had a great influence on this war even happening. His apparent leverage on Trump is not neccesarily disconnected from Frankenstein.

And this attempt to steer the public opinion away from the subject until mid-term elections are done has largery succeeded. At least until the whole operation stopped being Venezuela '26 and is slowly nearing something like American Invasion of Vietnam.

Additionally, while US people loose money due to Trump's War, many US companies are making a good buck on it (oil, military, more?). And these companies have money to influence US goverment decisions.

Sorry to say it, as this makes the world look much more cynical and evil. At least compared to a world where Trump's War was started to zero benefit whatsoever. There are people benefitting on your loss. And even though your loss is arguably greater than their benefit, they don't care.

* There's a good chance that thousands, worst case even millions, will starve. There are already crops NOT being planted due to fertilizer and fuel prices hike. Lack of this food will be felt in a few months to a year from now.

by wafflemaker

5/30/2026 at 7:46:43 AM

So, 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?

by defrost

5/30/2026 at 10:48:33 AM

What 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.

by subscribed

5/30/2026 at 8:35:32 AM

???

Your reasoning is, excuse my french, completely biased and stupid as fuck.

Every world leader holds millions of lives in their hands, whether by economic or military decisions. You don't just get to kill the ones you don't like.

It's the warmongering pieces of trash, who think that wasting unfathomable amounts of human life and labor blowing up their rivals for personal or geopolitical benefit is justified, who need to be placed under permanent arrest so the rest of us can get on with building useful things, living fulfilling lives, and loving each other as the vast majority of credulous, earnest people do.

Iran has been repeatedly attacked by Western imperialism over the last ~100 years (look it up), which directly created the extreme regimes currently in place, who have been ACTIVELY NEGOTIATING even while the US unilaterally initiates EVERY escalation in this conflict.

I don't think that any violent power structure is good, but you won't deceive anyone with a brain and a conscience thinking that the US is the good guys or that Iran deserved this, by pointing at the shortages that are a direct result of US imperial aggression

Trump is in the Epstein files thousands of times. Trump is current waging lawfare again a woman who proved in court he is a rapist. Trump is threatening every aspect of american civil life and global rules-based geopolitics because he is a bully.

Go on, get crushing.

by ceheaaf

5/30/2026 at 11:48:20 PM

> You don't just get to kill the ones you don't like.

I mean ya kinda do.

That’s how it’s always worked, that’s how it still works, and that’s how it will probably continue to work probably indefinitely, or at least from time to time, more or less so during different periods over time.

The only issue is that there will invariably be consequences, but the leaders of nations are, to varying degrees, immune to a lot of that, themselves personally.

by thrownthatway

5/30/2026 at 7:42:27 AM

So, how are you planning on dealing with Trump and friends? Appeasement clearly isn't working.

by vkou

5/30/2026 at 11:04:31 AM

> I just tend to thing bullies should be crushed rather than appeased

Cool it with the antisemitism. Netanyahu's actions were short-sighted but understandable, labeling him a "bully" is not fair.

by otabdeveloper4

5/30/2026 at 9:19:42 AM

So, what's your proposal for dealing with Trump then? The world waits with bated breath...

by snayan

5/30/2026 at 10:51:46 AM

May I suggest a very public trial and then seizure of all assets from this family, and then high security South-American prison?

by subscribed

5/30/2026 at 11:14:38 AM

Who would conduct that trial?

by tardedmeme

5/30/2026 at 2:48:40 PM

Iran could do it

by iwontberude

5/30/2026 at 11:29:42 AM

A thrombus is a blood clot in a distal blood vessel. When it becomes dislodged it becomes known as an embolism which, if it settles in a pulmonary or coronary artery, can rapidly become fatal. The chances of this happening are greatly increased in the elderly and those with known circulatory problems.

C'mon litle guy. You can make yourself famous. Be brave and let go of the wall of that leg vein. Say good bye to that comfy cankle and enter into your full glory.

by bregma

5/30/2026 at 8:14:49 AM

Hard to say at this point. Imagine in 50 years historians would write like "but crazy regimes kept developing nuclear weapons to exterminat nations they don't like, and the whole world just kept watching doing nothing until it was too late".

by deepsun

5/30/2026 at 8:37:48 AM

The world was not "just watching doing nothing", there was a Iran nuclear deal that made sure they didn't get nuclear weapons.

by eloisant

5/31/2026 at 4:06:00 AM

Was. Expired in 2025, as agreed at its inception. Since then it's "just watching doing nothing".

by deepsun

5/30/2026 at 10:24:48 AM

I know right? countries with nuclear arsenal constantly attacking like rabid dogs and has no respect to human life, what a nasty combination.

by mda

5/30/2026 at 11:31:48 AM

It is.

Guatemala, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, Afghanistan (that's deliberate), Kuwait, Ukraine, Georgia, Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam (also deliberate)... all of these countries and more have been invaded by nuclear powers.

by dsr_

5/30/2026 at 8:54:30 AM

Yeah, it's not very comfortable having a tiny-penis-syndrome's and alcoholic wife beater's fingers on the nuclear launch button...

by netsharc

5/30/2026 at 8:53:20 AM

We already watched while the crazy Zionist regime developed nuclear weapons.

by RobotToaster

5/30/2026 at 8:50:02 AM

And the genius move was to upset him without an exit strategy?

If your mom's life was in the hands of some thug, going in trying to beat him up, and then failing to win, pissing him off, is not a clever move...

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." - Sun Tzu, Art of War

Maybe Trump's follow-up to the Art of the Deal should be "The New Art of War". (Although I just realize now that the title of that book most likely because "Art of War" was a very popular book for business strategy in the 80's.

by netsharc

5/30/2026 at 8:44:46 AM

Trump and Bibi did this, Iran's response is perfectly legitimate and proportionate.

by specproc

5/31/2026 at 10:54:57 AM

Firing on merchant ships is a perfectly legitimate response?

I’m sorry, you people are just completely fucked in head.

by thrownthatway

5/31/2026 at 1:56:27 PM

That's not a particularly constructive response, now is it? What do you mean, "you people"?

I reiterate, the closure of one's territorial waters is a perfectly valid response to an unprovoked assault.

The world paying a very real price for the arrogance and chauvinism of the US. Both countries should be shamed, shunned and isolated for the good of the rest of the planet.

by specproc

5/30/2026 at 8:31:09 AM

You realize the Strait of Hormuz is shared territorial waters between Oman and Iran right? It’s not an international waterway like the orange shit stain likes to say.

by iwontberude

5/30/2026 at 11:57:07 AM

It is an international water way according to current rules. Iran is trying to change that.

by bluGill

5/30/2026 at 2:45:45 PM

No according to current UN maritime law it’s not international waters: territorial waters extend up to 12 nautical miles from the coast line. Iran could have always done this, but Trumps use of perfidy (luring Iran into negotiations to murder the negotiators) and assassination of the heads of state and military leadership of Iran have permanently erased that good will and shared use of the Strait.

Stupid hogs are ruining this country because they lack critical thinking skills and normal expectations for how countries should behave.

by iwontberude

5/31/2026 at 11:00:11 AM

Even a cursory glance at the Wikipedia entry would inform one of the special status of navigation through the straight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz

by thrownthatway

5/31/2026 at 6:32:43 PM

Great and if you read it you would see this passage: Although Iran has not ratified the UNCLOS convention,[19] most countries, including the U.S. which also has not ratified it,[20] claim the right of passage as codified in the convention.

Which means neither the US or Iran agreed/ratified UNCLOS and you are fucking wrong.

by iwontberude

5/30/2026 at 3:00:53 PM

The Strait had long had a different status from most other waters.

by bluGill

5/31/2026 at 6:33:46 PM

A status which neither Iran nor the US ever agreed to or ratified. Go read and stop wasting my time.

by iwontberude

5/31/2026 at 6:41:28 PM

Also sorry for being rude, I had one job.

by iwontberude

5/30/2026 at 6:21:01 AM

Of 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.

by wartywhoa23

5/30/2026 at 12:22:59 PM

I 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.

by phantomathkg

5/30/2026 at 2:33:24 PM

FYI, those 8% of males / 0.5% females stats are not about complete colorblindness, so almost all of those people use color in their life

by jezzamon

5/30/2026 at 3:29:15 PM

Yes 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.

by throwaway173738

5/30/2026 at 4:15:23 AM

[dead]

by aaron695

5/30/2026 at 4:13:41 AM

[flagged]

by BoorishBears

5/30/2026 at 4:39:25 AM

From the official guidelines 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.

by no-name-here

5/30/2026 at 6:54:14 AM

I won't.

by BoorishBears

5/30/2026 at 7:20:40 AM

Appropriate username is appropriate.

by ThePowerOfFuet

5/30/2026 at 6:58:54 AM

[flagged]

by thrownthatway

5/30/2026 at 3:52:00 AM

As 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.

by nogajun

5/30/2026 at 5:20:07 AM

Google is telling me that there were production drops in 2025, but it was (1) due to an oversupply caused by Japanese ethylene and benzene exports fell due new plants in China and an increase in cheaper exports from the US to Asian markets, and (2) domestic gasoline consumption dropping.

Everything I can find says the shortages now are due to the Iran war.

by tzs

5/30/2026 at 7:06:06 AM

> Google is telling me

Google is not an authoritative source. If we wanted to Google it we could do that ourselves.

Try bringing a substantive argument with references to the table.

Are you saying domestic policy and financial / tax incentives do not affect local manufacturing and markets?

Because that doesn’t sound like the sort of argument any reasonable sport of person would intentionally make.

As an Australian, I’ll note they our local federal government has, and this has always been their shtick, adopted the view that they can tax the nation to prosperity. That they can incentivise our way to productivity.

In practice this has only ever resulted in a demonstration of waste and a path to misalignment incentives.

But surely top-down financial policy will work this time.

by thrownthatway

5/30/2026 at 7:39:15 AM

They did say "everything I can find" which, while not citing references, you would also have found it you tried to Google this at all. Here's one

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/business/what-is-naphtha....

here's another one:

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/asia-pacific/2026/05/19/ple...

It's wider than Japan, it's in other countries in Asia. It's directly tied to the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But it's pretty clear you have your own axe to grind.

by relistan

5/30/2026 at 4:42:08 AM

> The Takaichi administration attempted to pressure Calbee into reversing this decision.

Do you have a citation for this? This sounds insane. I can't even think of any good faith motivation for doing this, other than to cover up the shortage and to keep the public pacified.

by pibaker

5/30/2026 at 5:00:05 AM

> https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASV5N32MVV5NUTFK005M.html

The title reads "PM's Office calls Calbee's response a "stunt"; Emphasizes naphtha sufficiency, including intermediate products".

Asahi Shinbun is one of the established newspapers.

Also at the end (translated by google):

> "The government interviewed Calbee about the situation on the 12th. According to a government official, they explained to Calbee that there is a sufficient amount available in terms of total volume. Sources close to the Prime Minister expressed concern over the ripple effects, stating, "Calbee's reaction is an overreaction. Their announcement will cause other companies to become anxious as well." However, Calbee maintains its stance, with a public relations representative stating, "This is a measure to ensure the stable supply of our products."

So it's relatively mild "nudge", if you compare it to the current US administration.

by flakiness

5/30/2026 at 5:48:39 AM

> I can't even think of any good faith motivation for doing this, other than to cover up the shortage and to keep the public pacified

Yes

by amake

5/31/2026 at 6:49:37 AM

I can think of one - Calbee is taking advantage of the situation to get massive, free TV time. On top of that, their product will be cheaper to make. In terms of a marketing coup, this is probably one of the greatest examples. No other package manufacturer has announced a similar ink shortage, so...

In half a year, maybe, but I and many I talk to are skeptical their huge scale supply chain is running out of printing material in such a short amount of time. I'm voting with my yen by not buying Calbee products for now.

by pjjpo

5/30/2026 at 4:36:58 AM

> 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/jap...

[1] - https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-marke...

[2] - https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/280064...

[3] - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0285-9

by alephnerd

5/30/2026 at 5:23:57 AM

The situation may stabilize over time as Japan gradually manages to shift sources. However, the situation has been and is serious, the Calbee issue isn't really what matters of course. As someone who's currently in the process of building a new house, I'm in constant touch with my construction company, and they tell me that there are tons of procurement problems because of the naphta shortage. Some companies have stopped taking orders altogether. We're lucky in that our construction company managed to secure what we need just in time, those just a couple of weeks after us have problems. We are mostly fine, except for some stuff, which, while important, can be handled. Or delayed, at least.

by Tor3

5/30/2026 at 5:31:46 AM

Absolutely, it is serious and will take months to stabilize, but this isn't the first nor the last shock like this that will arise.

The 2022 Russia-Ukraine War led to a temporary shock like this as did the Iraqi Civil War and the subsequent surge in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Life is filled with black swans and it truly sucks at the individual level, but at the macro-level this is transitionary.

Also, for the Japanese government, the housing pain is less worrisome than it's downstream impact on cracking.

by alephnerd

5/30/2026 at 7:15:01 AM

> is less worrisome than it's downstream impact on cracking.

What does cracking mean in this context?

by thrownthatway

5/30/2026 at 10:44:53 AM

What is more alarming is that the American public is completely silent on their mad Emperor's antics.

This all started in the White House and we must never let them get away with it.

by expedition32

5/30/2026 at 1:33:47 PM

Why do Americans have to worry about the packaging of Japanese snack products? S&P is up 10.5% YTD

by 0x59

5/31/2026 at 3:45:44 AM

>Why do Americans have to worry about the packaging of Japanese snack products?

We don't but we worry about similar issues caused by the same root cause.

by Suppafly

5/30/2026 at 3:58:51 AM

How 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?

by HDThoreaun

5/30/2026 at 4:13:34 AM

It sounds like this isn't a cost problem but a supply problem. At one point a 20% reduction in inputs has to affect some output.

by rtpg

5/30/2026 at 4:22:19 AM

Guess they'll have to use a smaller font.

by taneq

5/30/2026 at 6:59:11 AM

[dead]

by fleroviumna

5/30/2026 at 5:02:51 AM

the absurd policy being that they want a military and a birth rate

sooooo controversial, super right-wing right there

by yieldcrv

5/30/2026 at 5:55:19 AM

They 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.

by dnnddidiej

5/30/2026 at 6:20:34 AM

Sure. 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. :)

by ssl-3

5/30/2026 at 8:35:47 AM

Oh 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.

by dnnddidiej

5/30/2026 at 8:41:42 AM

I 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.

by tenderfault

5/30/2026 at 5:20:31 AM

Hn has at least one article in the top 25 related to Japan every day, even about the most obscure topics.

by ronnier

5/30/2026 at 8:00:35 AM

Japan 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.

by kdheiwns

5/30/2026 at 5:26:45 AM

Naphta 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).

by Tor3

5/30/2026 at 4:17:29 AM

Buried 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.

by jnakano89

5/30/2026 at 4:51:21 AM

What is the alternative to imported fossil fuel product for a country like Japan?

by pibaker

5/30/2026 at 9:07:10 AM

Given 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.

by sfifs

5/30/2026 at 4:53:55 AM

If 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...)

by Arn_Thor

5/30/2026 at 7:14:17 AM

Japan 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.

by ktallett

5/30/2026 at 4:31:22 AM

>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

by Barrin92

5/30/2026 at 6:23:42 AM

Very nicely factual and non-clickbait article for once.

by burgerone

5/30/2026 at 6:49:54 AM

Those bags look pretty good to me no nonsense color.

by Danox

5/30/2026 at 2:05:09 PM

My first thought was “boy, an American company could copycat this and stand out immediately in the color mess of snack aisles”

by Aboutplants

5/30/2026 at 2:23:11 PM

Unsurprisingly, XKCD has already contemplated this:

https://xkcd.com/993/

by ThinkingGuy

5/30/2026 at 5:27:05 PM

British 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.

by Symbiote

5/31/2026 at 1:45:51 AM

Canada too, with all yellow No Name products at Loblaw's.

by poncho_romero

5/30/2026 at 2:59:55 AM

After 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.

by johnea

5/30/2026 at 3:15:29 AM

Japan 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.

by gryson

5/30/2026 at 4:48:19 AM

Even better to provide a source for each statistic.

Japan has about half the plastic waste rate, yes [1].

However, the top recycling search result claims Japan only has a 19% recycling rate compared to the US’s 24% [2], but you might have been referring to a specific recycling type?

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/plastic-waste-per-capita

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_rates_by_country

by no-name-here

5/30/2026 at 5:16:16 AM

You're greatly misunderstanding that second link: that's the breakdown of what happens to collected municipal waste within each country (notice they all add up to 100% for each country). That says nothing about total amounts of plastic waste collected or recycled.

See Table 1 here and its sources:

https://circulareconomy.earth/publications/how-japan-is-usin...

Japan recycles about 24% of its used consumer plastics into new products, while the US recycles about 8%. That's NOT factoring in thermal recycling, which Japan is far better at than the US.

by gryson

5/30/2026 at 1:28:28 PM

Thermal recycling is a classic Japanese euphemism for burning plastics. Yes, for energy, but it's still misleading

https://www.mitsui.com/solution/en/contents/solutions/circul...

>it produces CO2 and toxic substances when it is burned.

by curio_Pol_curio

5/30/2026 at 4:04:12 PM

Yes, the bin for general waste is even labeled “burnables,” and in my experience that is where non-rigid plastic films go.

(Films are very difficult to sort automatically; we landfill them here in SF.)

by dcrazy

5/30/2026 at 3:36:35 AM

Since 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.

by armada651

5/30/2026 at 3:51:12 AM

Japan 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.

by gryson

5/30/2026 at 4:48:02 AM

Burning trash is recycling now?

by trillic

5/30/2026 at 10:25:27 AM

Efficient burning is far better than shipping it off to a dump in some poor country, while claiming that it'll somehow be recycled there.

by bell-cot

5/30/2026 at 3:19:44 AM

Japan can package up all the snacks they want, they still use far less oil per capita than the USA.

Japan: Approximately 28% of all passenger kilometers are traveled by rail

United States: Rail travel accounts for only about 0.25% of passenger kilometers

Remember: when you drive your 30mpg car to work, 20 miles down the freeway, alone in your vehicle by yourself, you are burning over a gallon of refined petroleum product every single day. You can make a loooooot of plastic bags with that much oil.

Something like 95% of Americans get to work via automobile.

by dangus

5/30/2026 at 5:56:31 AM

Isn't it 2/3 of a gallon plus any cold start inefficiency? But either way your point stands.

by hunter2_

5/30/2026 at 12:01:48 PM

20 miles to work = 40 mile round trip.

The average American commute time is something like 20-25 minutes and if that involves highway travel, 20 miles isn’t a crazy assumption.

by dangus

5/30/2026 at 9:47:30 AM

That’s what I’d expect for a country that imports all of its oil and a country that produces more oil than it uses, especially considering the oil importing nation is an island 1/25th the size of the oil rich country, making dense rail transportation easier.

I’d love if the US had better public transport and I could get rid of my car, it costs more per month than my housing (which is admittedly cheap)

by quickthrowman

5/30/2026 at 12:07:37 PM

I think the US is still a crazy outlier regardless of how much oil they produce.

They use double the oil of the entire EU despite having half the population.

Triple the usage of ASEAN despite having a little less than half the population.

Five times the usage of India despite India having four times the population.

I believe personal transportation is something like half of all oil use globally last I checked.

I don’t even think it’s about getting rid of your car entirely, it’s about a wild amount of dependence and a crazy economic incentive system where a 20mpg work truck has been the most popular vehicle in the country for decades. 100% of trips taken per week needing a car is a big consumption difference than 70% of trips taken per week needing a car.

by dangus

5/30/2026 at 6:12:38 AM

There’s something to be said for the amount of microplastics that end up in the environment. And also that the comparison isn’t only against the US, there are other countries that lead the way in plastic reduction.

by LadyCailin

5/30/2026 at 4:49:33 AM

Nippon packaging

So dressed like a lover

Frigid winter day

by helterskelter

5/30/2026 at 2:22:18 PM

Little 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.

by 1970-01-01

5/30/2026 at 5:22:24 AM

Maybe 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.

by Synaesthesia

5/30/2026 at 7:34:42 AM

The 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.

by the_gipsy

5/30/2026 at 12:38:35 PM

And 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.

by kasey_junk

5/30/2026 at 11:19:14 AM

Well 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.

by tardedmeme

5/30/2026 at 5:56:34 AM

Or makes ROTW more resiliant. I sped up my solar, battery and EV buy because of this for example.

The panels will land in ROTW.

by dnnddidiej

5/31/2026 at 6:49:11 AM

[dead]

by nkmak

5/30/2026 at 7:47:42 AM

[dead]

by georgefloid

5/30/2026 at 8:16:46 AM

[dead]

by officialchicken

5/30/2026 at 7:51:37 AM

[flagged]

by minarul22

5/30/2026 at 7:20:04 AM

[flagged]

by georgefloid

5/30/2026 at 4:34:13 AM

[flagged]

by georgefloid

5/30/2026 at 4:28:39 AM

[dead]

by georgefloid

5/30/2026 at 4:35:36 AM

[flagged]

by georgefloid

5/30/2026 at 4:42:59 AM

Is this sarcasm?

by no-name-here

5/30/2026 at 6:28:12 AM

Given the age of the account, trolling (perhaps even of the bot variety) more likely. Flagged & dead now.

by kelnos

5/30/2026 at 4:06:32 AM

Do we say ‘hail corporate’ here too? Because… this feels a lot like viral marketing for whatever this brand is to me.

by mock-possum