Raw Japan

Tempest in a bento box

The shelves of Japanese convenience stores are filled with neatly packed “bento” box meals. But ever wonder where they go when they reach their “sell-by” date? You should, because Japan chucks away a staggering 19 million tonnes of food a year – more than three times the amount of world food aid at 6 million tonnes.

The issue of food thrown away at “kombini”, or convenience store, recently grabbed the headlines here. Strict health laws mean many unsold items must be thrown out at the end of the day, and it’s each franchise store — not the store chain itself – that bears the cost of this waste. In all, about 70 percent of the leftovers from the food industry are recycled into animal feed and fertilizers, and much of the rest quietly rots in land-fill.  

To minimise their losses from all this waste, some Seven-Eleven Japan stores have been trying to cut prices on items nearing the end of their shelf-life, apparently against the company’s wishes. It sounds like a common-sense solution, but it has lifted the lid on quite a scandal in the kombini world, which has so far largely avoided cut-throat price competition as shoppers allow for the price gaps compared with supermarkets in return for the convenient locations and longer operating hours of the stores. 

And what was the result of the discount attempt? Japan’s anti-monopoly watchdog said Seven-Eleven had illegally pressured its franchise stores not to cut the prices of bento box meals and other food by implying it would cut its contracts with stores not complying. The Fair Trade Commission also ordered Japan’s largest convenience store chain, a unit of listed Seven & I Holdings, to halt such practices.

Carmaker to reporters: “Sorry, no water; we’re cutting costs”

Chang-Ran Kim

Feb 4, 2009 11:27 UTC

If only Extreme Cost-Cutting were a sport.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors today joined a growing string of automakers pulling out of cash-draining motorsports activities with an exit from the Dakar Rally. It’s part of the company’s attempt to squeeze out any cost savings it can, and it seems no effort is too small for consideration.

At today’s news conference to announce third-quarter financial results, the master of ceremonies opened with the following remark: “You may have noticed there are no refreshments at your seats today. This is part of our effort to reduce spending.”

Japan earnings: How low can they go?

For a company to be losing a lot of money is hardly surprising these days, but I was shocked last week when Hitachi said it would lose 700 billion yen this year, the biggest loss ever by a Japanese manufacturer.

Investors were also shocked, sending shares down 17 pecent the next trading day, wiping out $1.9 billion in market value.