TOKYO - Comedian Egashira 2:50 and convenience store giant FamilyMart have come under fire after promoting potato chips that contained pork ingredients without informing Muslim participants who were asked to sample them.
The chips, released on September 2nd under the product name 'Spicy Turkish Specialty! Legendary Kebab-Flavored Potato Chips,' were developed as part of a collaboration between FamilyMart and Egashira’s YouTube channel. To highlight authenticity, the team traveled to Turkey and filmed local people sampling the product. The video has since been deleted.
However, it later emerged that the chips contained pork-derived ingredients, which are strictly forbidden in Islam. With more than 90% of Turkey’s population being Muslim, the oversight drew strong criticism. On September 7th, Egashira and his team issued an apology in a video, saying they had not known about the pork content. Egashira added, “But that cannot be used as an excuse.”
FamilyMart admitted it had failed to share information about the pork-derived ingredients with participants or video producers and did not inform local people before asking them to taste the chips.
Muslim community leaders explained the religious significance of the issue. At a mosque in Saitama, Muhammad Uzair, a religious leader, stressed that Allah forbids consumption of dead meat, blood, and pork. Another representative, Shakir Mohamed, noted that the Qur’an allows forgiveness if someone unknowingly eats pork but emphasized the distress such incidents cause. A restaurant owner in Tokyo’s Yanaka district recalled accidentally eating pork decades ago, describing it as an intensely unpleasant experience that lingered for a week.
FamilyMart said it will strengthen its system for confirming ingredients during the planning stage and ensure cultural and religious sensitivities are respected in the future. Egashira stated his team has launched a compliance division to prevent similar problems.
Legal experts also stressed the importance of cultural awareness. Lawyer Kunitaka Kasai of Rei Law Office pointed out that in some countries, culture and religion are inseparable from law, making thorough checks a compliance necessity. Commentators noted that the company’s lack of proper review before traveling to Turkey reflected a serious lapse. FamilyMart pledged that it would never allow such an incident to happen again.
Source: TBS
