{"id":21184,"date":"2026-05-12T17:34:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/21184\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:34:40","slug":"japan-crisp-packs-to-go-colourless-due-to-iran-war-crunch-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/21184\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan crisp packs to go colourless due to Iran war crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A A household name in Japan, Calbee is known for its savoury potato chips with an array of flavours (Yuichi YAMAZAKI) \u00b7 Yuichi YAMAZAKI\/AFP\/AFP <\/p>\n

Japan’s leading potato chip maker is feeling the crunch from shortages linked to the Iran war, swapping its signature orange-and-yellow packets for black and white.<\/p>\n

A household name in Japan, Calbee is known for its savoury potato chips with an array of flavours from seaweed salt to soy sauce and butter.<\/p>\n

The company said Tuesday it will “revise the packaging specifications” and use just “two colours” in packaging for 14 product lines beginning later this month or in June.<\/p>\n

It did not say which two colours, but the statement showed photos of grey packaging.<\/p>\n

Calbee blamed “supply instability for certain raw materials resulting from the escalating tensions in the Middle East”.<\/p>\n

Local media said the snack-maker has seen its procurement of printing ink compromised by shortages of naphtha, an oil byproduct used in a wide range of industries.<\/p>\n

The goods affected included several potato chip products, as well as a breakfast cereal and Kappa Ebisen, a moreish shrimp snack known for the slogan “can’t stop, can’t stop”.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to respond swiftly and flexibly to changes in the business environment, including geopolitical risks, while striving to deliver safe, reliable, and satisfying products,” the company said.<\/p>\n

Another Japanese food company, Itoham Yonekyu Holdings, also told AFP that going black-and-white or using different kinds of inks for some of its products were among possible options in the future, similarly blaming supply problems due to the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n

Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and its de facto closure since the war began in late February has sent prices soaring.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi previously said Tokyo was expected to have enough naphtha-derived chemical products to last beyond the end of the year after boosting imports from outside the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Last week Takaichi said that the global oil supply squeeze was inflicting an “enormous impact” on the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

tmo-hih\/stu\/ami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A household name in Japan, Calbee is known for its savoury potato chips with an array of flavours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16564,8,33,16752,358],"class_list":{"0":"post-21184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-calbee","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-nihon","11":"tag-potato-chips","12":"tag-sanae-takaichi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21184","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=21184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}