The new cap has been developed by Nihon Crown Cork Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Toyo Seikan Ltd. It has a ”tab and hinge,” hinge-joined cap shell, and tamper evident band. When the cap is opened, the tab can be easily hooked over the thread of the screw, and it clicks when hooked. There is no need to have to hold the cap and there is no chance the cap will be lost. Targeting female drinkers, JREWB expects the new cap can offer consumers a more convenient drinking experience.

However, the ongoing temporary power cuts have been severely disrupting production. Working around this Japan’s beverage companies are already at full stretch, including shifting their production to the areas in western Japan unaffected by the crisis. And in addition to the problems with supply of caps, containers and labels as we reported yesterday, supply of raw materials such plastic resins have also been affected, making it a challenge for producers to respond to MAFF’s request.

We and others in the industry therefore continue to urge consumers not to make unnecessary purchases or to hoard stocks of mineral water at this time.

· Kirin Beer’s beer storage tanks and factory buildings in Sendai – some stock destroyed
· Damage to Asahi and Sapporo’s factories in the north and east of Japan – both from earthquake damage and from resultant ground liquefaction nearer Tokyo
· Yakult’s Fukushima and Iwate factories suffered damage halting supply of Yakult Calorie Half, Yakult SHEs, Yakult 300V and Yakult Genki Yogurt products
· Morinaga Dairies Sendai factory – building and equipment affected
· Otsuka Pharamceutical Hanamaki factory producing nutrition products
· Nihon Kami Pack – damage to buildings and production facilities and the collapse of stock in its automatic warehouse
· Coca Cola Central Japan – damage to its automatic warehouse system and stock
· Hokuetsu Package in Ibaragi, which makes packaging for milk suffered serious damage to its factory. (50% of Japan’s production of paper cartons is in Ibaragi which was an area badly affected)
· Toyo Seikan Group, one of Japan’s largest soft drink and beer packaging suppliers has suffered damage to a number of factories including its Kanto and Tohoku PET bottling, and to Japan Crown Cork in Ibaragi which produces 30-40% of Japan’s PET bottle caps
· Daiwa Seikan, another major can and bottle packaging supplier has suffered damage to production facilities, and plant shutdowns due to fallen and damaged stock of secondary materials

Much of the most serious impact however has been to logistics and distribution, in particular regarding availability of fuel. And power cuts have necessitated the disruption of production affecting production efficiency and output. Companies with factories in the west side of Japan have been shifting production there where possible and necessary. However, as of 24th March we are already seeing production resuming at some of the damaged and disrupted facilities.

In addition, both the major and smaller beverage and food companies have been quick to make significant product and financial donations to the relief effort. Some, such as Cheerio Corporation, have been able to create their own new and direct distribution routes to the disaster areas.

We will bring you more details of the effects of the Japan earthquake on the beverage industry and market as they emerge.

At this time the beverage industry, including the mineral water industry, is facing a big challenge as the major container suppliers, especially cap suppliers, have been affected by the earthquake, even though most of the filling factories escaped significant problems. In addition eastern Japan is subject to daily power cuts every 3 or 6 hours which is affecting factory efficiency and output. As a result there is a real challenge to supply beverage products to consumers. Nobody knows when this nuclear crisis will finish or whether it will become even more serious.

So here is my appeal to the beverage industry across the world!! Would you please consider donating water to Japan? Please contact your nearest Japanese embassy, or your government to find out how you can most effectively do this.

Thank you

時々・・・になりますが，アップデート情報を掲載致します。是非，TwitterやFacebookをご覧下さいませ。そして，お気軽にお友達登録をお願いいたします。飲料が大好きな方であれば，飲料業界人であるかどうかは問いません。Facebookでは，Yoshihiko Haniで検索してみて下さい。

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Dear Readers,

I am in Santiago Chile, really hot summer! I will put update on my Twitter and / or facebook. Please follow me, and give me any comments.

I welcome to be a friend on facebook.

Thank you.

“Nanchatte” means fake or joking in Japanese so this beverage is based on fake concept. The company has launched 2 ‘fake’ beverages before (drinks which appear to be something different to what they really are). The first one, “Nanchatte Orange” was a fake soy sauce concept in 2008. The liquid was black in colour and the PET bottle and label design looked just like the packaging design of a major Japanese soy sauce brand. But instead of being salty, its taste was in fact….. orangeade. This created a big impression in the market. And in 2009 “Nanchatte Cola” was packaged and coloured like Tabasco hot chili sauce, but was actually a cola.

The new “Nanchatte Cola 2010″ will launch on 13 Dec. 2010. This year’s version is also a fake soy sauce (the colour is again black, and the PET bottle and the label design are again similar to soy sauce) but this time it is a fizzy cola-flavoured soda. However this time it does contain soy sauce (about 0.3%)! Will it be salty? The company maintains it won’t but the proof will be in the tasting!

There is a current trend in Japan for health concept wines with enriched polyphenol content but by doubling the concentration of polyphenols and removing the sugar content Kikkoman is strongly emphasising the wine’s health credentials and has, we believe, achieved a world’s first.

Kikkoman says that through higher fermentation the wine contains less than 0.5mg/100ml saccharide. This enables it to promote the product under Japanese nutrition labelling standards as “Saccharide zero”. But high fermentation also makes the taste of the wine much drier so the company has added the natural sweetener stevia to create the right taste.

“Polyphenol Tappuri Wine, Tohrui Zero” will go on sale on 22nd August at 685 JPY (around US$8.00) for 720ml glass bottle. If you want to try it will be widely available at most supermarkets in Japan. Let us know what you think!

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As a result, the big 4 Japanese beer companies, Kirin, Asahi, Suntory and Sapporo have been developing completely non alcoholic beer. These beverages are not brewed, but have a beer-like taste. Kirin Free led the market in 2009 as consumers were able to drink without fear of the police. Indeed, most of its customers were drivers and it was the first beer-like product sold at highway shops here.

At the moment, Asahi Beer is working hard to improve its non alcoholic beer. The “Asahi Double Zero” will launch on 3 Aug, and it is not only zero alcohol but also zero calories. Asahi says that Double Zero is made using their technology for analyzing beer flavour and malt extract, allowing them to create a great refreshing taste.

Packaging is 350 ml aluminum can and returnable glass bottle (334 ml). Production is at the company’s Fukushima factory and Asahi plans to sell around 800 thousand cases (633 ml x 20 bottles per case).

Pepsi will launch “PEPSI BAOBAB” on 25th May, 500ml PET bottle, 140Yen. It has been the custom for Pepsi to launch a ‘strange’-flavoured Pepsi for several years now. In 2007 they launched “Cucumber”, and in 2009 “Azuki” and “Shiso” (red bean, and perilla) both quite Japanese flavours but unusual to see in CSDs.

This drink is a cola CSD but with BAOBAB flavour. The BAOBAB is a kind of superfruit with rich mineral and vitamins, and is not at all well known in Japan. But it is another example of Pepsi putting out a product that is likely to get people talking. Usually Pepsi’s seasonal products sell about 30 thousand cases (24 bottles a case).