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Mr Donut at center of Japan’s latest food scandal

November 2, 2007
By Ken Worsley


On Wednesday, the Yomiuri reported that donut chain Mr Donut has become the latest firm to become involved with food scandals, this time by using expired syrups in some of its drinks.

According to the Yomiuri, company spokesperson Aikira Kita told reporters, “We’re extremely sorry for causing our customers concern and trouble.” He added that the firm did not think there were any health risks posed by the syrup, and that no complaints had been received from customers.

Price wars are apparently leading Japan’s food firms to cut corners, which is bad news at a time when Japan’s service industry is seeking to do more business overseas.

Filed Under Business, Japan, Retail 

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Comments

4 Responses to “Mr Donut at center of Japan’s latest food scandal”

  1. Matt Dioguardi on November 4th, 2007 8:06 am

    “Price wars are apparently leading Japan’s food firms to cut corners, which is bad news at a time when Japan’s service industry is seeking to do more business overseas.”

    Let me throw out the following as a *guess*.

    This type of thing is rampant in Japan. So long as a company thinks that no one will get sick, they are quite willing to cut costs by recycling expired materials. The current spat of scandals is sort of like a pressure cooker letting off some steam so as it won’t explode. But fundamentally, things have been like this for a long time and are not at present moving towards any fundamental change.

    Of course, that’s just a *guess*. I don’t think the recent scandals are related to current cost cutting. Duskin has a history of this sort of thing. Akafuku had been doing what it does for decades.

    I did here from someone that the law and/or administrative procedures in regards to this type of thing had changed under Koizumi. But I am not sure about the details of this.

  2. Ken Worsley on November 4th, 2007 10:14 am

    “…[F]undamentally, things have been like this for a long time and are not at present moving towards any fundamental change.”

    I agree with you. We’re seeing employees expose some dirt because they’re able to, and because what they see is bothering their conscience.

    What gets me is when we see people say things like, “This shows that morals are slipping in Japan.” Bullshit. It shows that morals are alive and well and that people have a channel to report abuses. Management has been flouting laws forever, and now it’s going to get noticed - in a few cases.

  3. WG on November 5th, 2007 9:40 am

    Akafuku had been doing what it does for decades.

    Yup. And this stuff takes forever, or some sort of huge scandal, to actually see the light. Look at some of the stuff coming out on Nova now. More laws broken with regard to dirty lending and loans given in exchange for equity stakes purchases. That was 6 years ago but no one feels the need to report anything until after bankruptcy was declared. The media’s asleep at the wheel, and the consumers are too comfortable to wake it up.

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