Japanese police arrest Chinese trio that stockpiled 40,000 nappies
Men filed Japan visas to be chefs but instead went shopping for the mainland market
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 25 October, 2014, 3:51am
UPDATED : Saturday, 25 October, 2014, 3:51am
Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Three Chinese nationals went on a five-day shopping spree during which they purchased 990 packs of disposable baby nappies from 267 stores across the Kansai region. Photo: Edward Wong
Three Chinese nationals have been taken into custody in Japan for allegedly violating the terms of their visas by buying hundreds of packs of disposable nappies.
Police in Hyogo prefecture detained the three men, whose names have not been released, on October 15. The men are expected to be deported instead of being prosecuted.
Investigators said the men filed visa applications in China to come to Japan to work as chefs in a Chinese restaurant in the city of Akashi. Instead of cooking, however, the men immediately went on a five-day shopping spree during which they purchased 990 packs of disposable baby nappies from 267 stores across the Kansai region.
Given that the average package contains 40 nappies, the would-be nappy moguls had built up a stockpile of nearly 40,000 nappies.
The products were stored in a warehouse and investigators understand that all were to be transported to China.
The booming Chinese market is a highly lucrative one for Japanese firms such as Nippon Paper Industries and Diao Paper, which manufactures the popular Goo.n brand of disposable nappies.
And because they are of such high quality, well above Chinese-produced brands, they have become a luxury product with dealers able to put a 50 per cent mark- up on the official price.
The Japan External Trade Organisation estimated that the official nappy market in China was worth some 170 billion yen (HK$12 billion) in 2013 - three times the amount of just five years earlier.
With a steady supply of nappies difficult to come by in China, however, traders are setting up export operations from Japan. Inevitably, that is having an impact on domestic supplies.
"In the past, I have not been able to find my favourite brand of nappies even if I go to two or three shops," said Kanako Hosomura, the mother of an 18-month-old boy from Yokohama.
"And earlier this year, one store that I went to said everyone was allowed to buy only one pack of nappies because there was a shortage. This sort of things makes that situation worse."
Japanese nappy manufacturers have also been working with trade authorities in China in an effort to stamp out the counterfeiting of nappies.
