Uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East is beginning to affect daily life in Japan, as concerns over crude oil supplies spread to restaurants, cleaning services and even household garbage disposal systems across the Kansai region.
As conflict in the Middle East drags on, shortages of naphtha — a key raw material used in a wide range of petroleum-based products — are beginning to affect even Japan's traditional cheap snacks, with manufacturers facing steep rises in packaging and material costs while trying to keep products affordable for children.
As the prolonged disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz continues to strain global energy markets, differences are emerging between how Japan and South Korea are responding to the growing risk of fuel shortages and rising prices.
Complaints are mounting across a wide range of industries over shortages of naphtha-related materials, but the government insists the issue is not a lack of overall supply, describing it instead as a “bottleneck” in distribution and processing. So what exactly is happening behind the scenes?
The worsening situation in the Middle East is beginning to affect Japan’s automotive sector, with shortages of engine oil and other lubricants emerging alongside rising prices, creating mounting pressure across the industry.
Free roll-type plastic bags once available to shoppers at supermarkets are being removed one after another as shortages of naphtha, a petroleum-derived raw material used in plastic production, spread across Japan amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
Japan’s corporate goods prices rose 4.9% in April from a year earlier, far exceeding market expectations as soaring crude oil prices linked to tensions in the Middle East pushed wholesale inflation to its highest level in nearly three years.
Kagome announced on May 14th that it will temporarily redesign several ketchup products by reducing printed packaging areas and adopting mostly transparent labels as worsening tensions in the Middle East continue to disrupt supplies of white ink and other petroleum-based packaging materials across Japan.