Where is the butter? — cry Japanese consumers who have been hunting everywhere for the dairy product. The drastic reduction in raw milk production, complicated by hikes in the price of grain as well as changes in the global patterns of dairy product consumption, have caused a serious butter shortage in Japan. Empty shelves in the dairy section of grocery stores across the country have not seen a shipment of butter for days, and stores are posting signs apologizing for the shortage.
An empty shelf at a grocery store with a sign explaining that the management does not know when the next shipment of butter will come.
While many bloggers complain about the shortage and the inconvenience caused by it, the blogger at Bebe Kobo, who operates a small-scale family-run dairy farm, gives their insight into the problems the dairy farmers are facing, which have resulted in this butter shortage:
たびたびＴＶや新聞で報道されているように、バター不足が深刻です。
既に報道されていますが、原因は主に牛乳不足といわれています。
牛乳の消費がここ数年ずっと伸び悩んでおり、2006年には北海道で牛乳を廃棄する光景が見られました。そしてかなりの数の牛が殺処分になりました。
それより以前は脱脂粉乳の処分に困り、組合を通じてセメント袋ほどの大きさの袋に入った脱脂粉乳を酪農家は天引きの形で買わされたり、（現在では信じられないけど）年末には大量のバターをこれまた天引きで強制的に買わされていました。
The consumption of milk has been stagnant, and in 2006 milk was seen being disposed of in Hokkaido. Also, a large number of cows were slaughtered.
Before that, they could not get rid of powered skim milk, so dairy farmers were forced to buy powered skim milk in big bags the size of cement bags, such that the cost was deducted from their pay checks through the co-op. Also, at the year-end, they were forced again to buy a huge amount of butter with money deducted from their pay check (which seems unbelievable today).
牛乳の消費の伸び悩み。この原因はいくつかあります。いろいろな清涼飲料が増えたこと、少子化で学校での牛乳消費が減っていること、アレルギー、そしてアレルギーでもないのに病的に牛乳を悪者に仕立てる一部の人々…………。ひどいブログだと牛乳をけなしたあげく酪農家は無くなればよい、と書いているものまでありました。
ことに2005年4月にサンマーク出版から発行された新谷弘実著の「病気にならない生き方」という本。物凄いヒットでした。
これが酪農家だけでなくまともな学者も怒りだすほどとにかく「牛乳が悪い」という価値観で書かれていて、ただでさえ消費が伸び悩む牛乳に決定的なダメージを一時は与えました。
This book was written from a point of view that says that “milk is bad”, something which made not only dairy farmers but also sensible academics angry, and also critically damaged the image of milk that was already suffering the sluggish consumption.
[…]
2006年に牛を大量処分したツケは確実に消費者を直撃しました。そのひとつがバター不足です。
子牛が一人前になって牛乳を出せるようになるには最低でも2年以上かかります。
自然の摂理に逆らうことはできないのです。
The consequences of mass slaughtering of cows certainly hit consumers directly. The butter shortage is one of these consequences.
For a calf to grow old enough to produce milk, it takes more than 2 years.
You cannot go against natural law.
乳製品は化学製品ではありません。健全に牛を飼う構造が機能しないと今後もバター不足のようなことは頻発します。
消費者の皆様のご理解を心よりお願い申し上げます。
I sincerely ask you consumers for your understanding.
Then in a different entry posted on a later day, the blogger lists the major factors cause the current butter shortage.
1 ＥＵ加盟国（フランスなど）が乳製品の輸出のための補助金が付かなくなり、従来日本などに輸出されていたバターが国内消費に回されていること、中国やロシアやインドなどの生活水準が上がり、そちらにバターなどが流れているという事情も輸入バターの不足に繋がっています。
2 加えて豪州は2年連続の大干ばつ。酪農家の飼料代高騰の大きな原因になっている他バターなどの輸出量に影響を及ぼしています。
3 国内事情は前の日記に書いたように牛乳不足でうまくバターなどに牛乳が回りません。
またバターを製造すると脱脂粉乳ができるのですが、脱脂粉乳が売れずまた在庫を抱えることになるので、一気にバターの製造量を増やせない事情があります。
例えば缶コーヒーなどでも最近は脱脂粉乳より生乳を加えたものの方が味が良いため、飲用乳がそちらに回り、生乳不足に拍車をかけています。
Also, because skim milk is produced when butter is made, if powdered skim milk cannot be sold then stockpiles build up, creating a situation in which the quantity of butter produced cannot be increased all at once.
For example, things like canned coffee taste better when fresh milk is added instead of skimmed milk, and so the supply of fresh milk is diverted for this, intensifying the fresh milk shortage.
とにかく酪農の安定した推移や、乳製品のバランスのよい需給対策を抜本的に国レベルで考えない限りまたバター不足は繰り返されると懸念しています。
「食糧の自給」問題の一端がこのバター騒動です。
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I have experienced this shortage personally. My local grocery store had only 6 packages of butter on the shelf yesterday and the other day there were none available.
Thanks for translating this information.
[…] Japan is experiencing a butter shortage. […]
in Singapore, the price of my favorite australian butter has doubled
Shortage of butter is better than shortage of rice….
anyway, thanks for you work
[…] to imagine what sort of blogger would be capable of writing such a terrible thing. Link. Spread the word: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and […]
always been a question do the japanese drink milk
http://www.milksucks.com
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In Japan, last year it was Wii shortage, now butter shortage..
[…] there’s a butter shortage in Japan. […]
[…] Kathy McKinneyI’m not ashamed to admit that I’m scared these days. I’m a voracious reader, particularly of news sites online, and what I’ve been reading does not make for restful nights. Did you know that in Haiti, people are eating dirt? Yes, dirt. Vendors are selling butter and salt flavored dirt to starving people. When I was a kid, Mary Elizabeth Cravey (now Shehane) and I used to eat dirt in the back yard with gigantic spoons we’d steal from her mama’s kitchen, so I can say, I’m something of an expert. You have to be darned hungry to eat dirt. (Unless you’re seven years old, of course.) How long until the Haitians tire of their dirt diet and join the hordes of illegal aliens we’re already trying to care for here now?People are hungry all over: there have been food riots all over Egypt, the Caribbean, and the Phillipines, and the Director General of the UN FAO is predicting new ones in Asian countries. The price of the food staples of the poor: rice, wheat, and corn has been growing at an alarming rate. Food prices in Indonesia, for instance, are up 80% over two years ago. Rice prices are at a 20 year high, wheat is at a 28 year high…and countries are bidding up the prices in a frantic effort to stockpile enough to feed starving populations. OK, well enough, it’s horrible and all that, but what does that have to do with us, right here in Dixie County? Have you been to the grocery store lately? Prices here are up, too. I felt the increase in corn prices just the other day as my normal dog food bill at the feed store went up almost 10% overnight. A courthouse chat with Ray Hodges about the price he’s charging for his beef (he’s going to have to raise it due to…you guessed it…feed costs) reminded me that the price of fertilizer is also climbing.One side effect of rising grocery prices I’ve noticed is that more people seem to be planting gardens this year. Heck, I planted one, and I have killed a cactus. Yes, really, I have. I left it out in the rain. Apparently, they’re not as indestructible as you’d think and rain is bad for cacti. Since my friend Doug is doing most of the work (with the “assistance” of my three plant-stomping kids), the garden will hopefully have a better shot at survival than the ill-fated cactus.That’s one blessing that we have, as a rural people. Most of us have the land and the knowledge of how to provide some of our own food. Like Hank, Jr. says, “He can skin a buck, he can run a trout line, and a country boy can survive.” Darn good thing, because I have the unnerving certainty that we’re going to need some of that self-reliance in the days ahead. Do your family a favor; plant something. Just in case. UPDATE: Link to story about Japan’s butter shortage […]
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[…] a comment over at MR, I found an interesting interview (translated to English) with a Japanese dairy farmer that attempts to explain the situation: The […]
I was talking to one of the buyers at a major Japanese retailer and he said it is very difficult for them to meet demand. Last Christmas they ran out, and he was very worried about being able to supply enough butter this year.
[…] Did you hear the big announcement that Japan is almost out of butter?! […]
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