TokyoJapan’s naphtha reserve is down to 3 weeks.
Calbee goes monochrome on 25 May; colour ink needs naphtha and Japan imports 40% from the Middle East, the cabinet said.
Keidanren found 72.5% of consumer companies plan price rises.
Sources: South China Morning Post, BBC, Economic Times, The Straits Times, The Star
WHAT NAPHTHA IS
Naphtha is a light hydrocarbon fraction distilled between gasoline and kerosene. Steam-crack it and you get ethylene and propylene — the molecular feedstocks for almost every plastic, solvent, and synthetic dye in modern manufacturing.
WHY JAPAN IMPORTS IT
Japan has no domestic crude and ran down its heavy-industry refining capacity in the 2000s. Naphtha is now imported directly as a finished feedstock, mostly from Middle Eastern crackers and Korean refiners — bypassing the domestic refining step entirely.
THE HORMUZ DEPENDENCY
About 80% of Japan's crude and naphtha imports transit the Strait of Hormuz. Unlike Europe, Japan has no pipeline alternatives — every barrel arrives by tanker, and the tanker route from the Gulf to Yokohama is fixed by geography.
THE STOCKPILE LAW
After the 1973 oil shock, Japan passed the Petroleum Stockpiling Act requiring private refiners to hold 70 days of supply and the state to hold another ~145 days of crude. Naphtha sits inside that envelope but turns over fast — three weeks of cover is the floor before downstream plastics plants ration.
THE 1973 PRECEDENT
OPEC's embargo cut Japan's oil by a quarter overnight. Toilet paper disappeared from shelves within days — not because paper needed oil, but because consumers hoarded on rumour. MITI's response was to build the stockpile, diversify suppliers, and pivot industry toward energy efficiency. Japan's energy intensity halved over the next two decades.
WHY COLOUR INK FIRST
In a feedstock crunch, manufacturers triage downstream: medical plastics and food packaging integrity rank above decorative print. Going monochrome saves the aromatic solvents in colour ink for higher-priority uses without halting production. It is rationing dressed as design.