This picture produced from video offered by Japan’s NNN-NTV reveals Calbee snack packages in shade and black and white in Tokyo, Wednesday, Could 13, 2026.
AP/NNN-NTV
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AP/NNN-NTV
TOKYO — The packaging on some snacks in Japan is popping a somber black-and-white, because the battle in Iran disrupts the availability of an ingredient utilized in coloured ink.
Tokyo-based Calbee Inc., which makes potato chips and cereal, stated what’s inside stays the identical. Calbee’s widespread snacks can be found in Japan’s ubiquitous comfort shops and shipped to the US, China and Australia.
“This measure is intended to help maintain a stable supply of products,” it stated in a press release this week.
The change on 14 merchandise in its lineup will begin Could 25, limiting ink colours to simply two, the corporate stated, noting it was vital to reply flexibly to altering geopolitical situations.
How lengthy the change would possibly final stays unclear, based on Calbee, based in 1949. The Calbee group employs greater than 5,000 folks.
The transfer is the newest as firms grapple with spiking costs and shortages of oil and different merchandise attributable to the battle within the Center East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan, which depends nearly completely on imports for its oil, has up to now ridden out the concerns comparatively calmly, as the federal government has labored to allay such fears by noting the nation’s oil reserves.
But it surely’s nonetheless going through a squeeze on naphtha, an oil-derived product that is utilized in objects like plastics and ink.
There is not any mistaking the stark change within the chip’s packaging.
Calbee’s frivolously salted chips, often called “usu shio,” initially got here in a bright-orange bag with a picture of yellow chips and a potato-man mascot carrying a hat.
The brand new packaging simply has monochrome lettering.
The corporate, which additionally makes shrimp chips, or “kappa ebisen,” had simply introduced an bold progress technique in March.
“Calbee will continue to respond flexibly and promptly to changes in its operating environment, including geopolitical risks, and remains committed to maintaining a stable supply of safe, high‑quality products,” it stated. “We ask for your understanding.”
