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Japanese snacks go black-and-white: Why Iran war is driving up ink prices
Japanese snack giant Calbee is temporarily switching to black-and-white packaging for 14 products due to shortages of naphtha, an ink ingredient, caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Iran conflict. The move highlights wider supply chain disruptions affecting Japanese businesses, including Mizkan and Toyota.
Japanese snack giant Calbee has announced it will temporarily switch to black-and-white packaging for 14 of its products, including its popular potato chips and prawn crackers, due to shortages of printing ink ingredients caused by supply disruptions in the Middle East. The move, which takes effect from May 25, is a response to "supply instability affecting certain raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East," the company said in a statement.
Coverage comparison
The story has been widely reported by international media, with outlets framing the development differently. Al Jazeera emphasized the impact of the "US-Israeli war on Iran" on Japanese businesses, while the BBC focused on the broader effects of "ongoing tensions in the Middle East" on supply chains. France 24 highlighted the rise in global oil prices and the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, and The Guardian framed the issue around the "Strait of Hormuz blockade" and its effects on Japanese companies. All four sources agree on the core fact: Calbee is adopting monochrome packaging due to ink shortages stemming from Middle East supply instability.
Key claims
Calbee is switching to black-and-white packaging for 14 products, including potato chips and prawn crackers, with new packets appearing in stores from May 25 (as reported by Al Jazeera, BBC, France 24, and The Guardian).
The company said the change is due to "supply instability affecting certain raw materials" amid Middle East tensions (according to Calbee's statement, quoted by multiple outlets).
Japan imports about 40% of its naphtha—an oil derivative used in printing ink—from the Middle East (reported by Al Jazeera, BBC, and The Guardian).
The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since the end of February, disrupting oil shipping (claimed by Al Jazeera, with France 24 mentioning a standoff over the strait). Global oil prices have risen, with Brent crude climbing near $110 a barrel (cited by France 24).
Calbee is temporarily holding back the release of a new snack due to the shortage (reported by The Guardian).
Other Japanese companies, including Mizkan and Toyota, are also affected by supply disruptions (mentioned by BBC and France 24).
The Japanese government is working to reassure the public and businesses, with imports of naphtha from outside the Middle East tripling in May compared to pre-war levels (according to a government spokesperson, as cited by Al Jazeera, BBC, and France 24).
Perspectives
Al Jazeera's coverage adopts a critical tone, attributing the crisis to the "US-Israeli war on Iran" and emphasizing the human and economic toll. The BBC and The Guardian take a more neutral, informative stance, focusing on the business and consumer impact. France 24 contextualizes the story within broader global oil price movements. The Japanese government, via deputy chief cabinet secretary Kei Sato, insists that adequate supplies of naphtha have been secured and that imports are being diversified, including from the US, to avoid wider disruption. However, industry observers note that Asian economies remain heavily reliant on Middle East energy and oil-related products, making them particularly vulnerable to shipping disruptions through the Gulf.
How each outlet told it
Al Jazeera
Framing: Impact of US-Israeli war on Iran on Japanese businesses — Critical
Facts Included:
The US-Israeli war on Iran is causing supply instability in Japan
Calbee is switching to black and white packaging for 14 products due to ink shortages
Japan imports 40% of its naphtha from the Middle East
The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut since the end of February
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimGlobal oil prices rose due to the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.