{"id":20882,"date":"2026-05-12T05:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/20882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T05:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:51:08","slug":"a-japanese-company-ditches-color-packages-due-to-iran-war-ink-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/20882\/","title":{"rendered":"A Japanese Company Ditches Color Packages Due to Iran War Ink Shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/goldman-sachs-oil-jet-fuel-naphtha-lpg-shortage-hormuz-disruption-2026-5\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">fuel prices<\/a> surged. Now, even potato chips aren&#8217;t safe from the global <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/price-shock-inflation-commodities-oil-iran-war-fuel-costs-economy-2026-4\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">petrochemical squeeze.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                          Loading audio narration&#8230;\n                        <\/p>\n<p>In Japan, snack giant Calbee \u2014 known for its popular potato chips \u2014 is switching some colored snack packaging to black and white after oil shortages linked to the Iran war squeezed global ink supplies, <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/asia.nikkei.com\/business\/food-beverage\/snack-maker-calbee-s-packages-go-black-and-white-amid-iran-war-ink-crunch\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;click_type&quot;:&quot;other&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;outbound_click&quot;}\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\">local media<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>The culprit is naphtha, an oil-derived chemical used to make solvents and resins for printing ink. Naphtha is also a key ingredient in plastics, packaging material, and adhesives. Prices for the material have surged amid the conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Calbee did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<\/p>\n<p>Japan relies heavily on imported naphtha, making it especially vulnerable to supply disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, companies including toilet maker Toto and Panasonic have warned of <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/goldman-sach-jet-fuel-supply-crunch-diesel-naphtha-refinery-shortages-2026-5\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">delivery disruptions<\/a> and price hikes tied to naphtha-based materials.<\/p>\n<p>In the food industry, Calbee is not the only company facing naphtha-related pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Itoham Yonekyu \u2014 a Japanese maker of processed meat and precooked food \u2014 said it is planning to reduce the number of colors used in product packaging to cut costs.<\/p>\n<p>Japanese officials have tried to calm fears of a broader shortage.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Kei Sato, the country&#8217;s deputy chief cabinet secretary, said there are no immediate problems with Japan&#8217;s naphtha supply. He added that while 40% of the country&#8217;s naphtha supply comes from the Middle East, an equal amount is produced domestically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First, fuel prices surged. Now, even potato chips aren&#8217;t safe from the global petrochemical squeeze. Loading audio narration&#8230;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[857,16564,16565,16569,16571,6163,11564,16566,16567,8,17,2158,5643,16568,16563,16570],"class_list":{"0":"post-20882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-business-insider","9":"tag-calbee","10":"tag-color-packages","11":"tag-colored-snack-bag","12":"tag-comment","13":"tag-country","14":"tag-food-industry","15":"tag-fuel-price","16":"tag-iran-war-ink-shortage","17":"tag-japan","18":"tag-japanese","19":"tag-japanese-company","20":"tag-naphtha","21":"tag-oil-shortage","22":"tag-packaging-material","23":"tag-potato-chip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}