The new cans were first used by Japanese beverage makers such as Kirin Brewery Co Ltd, but a big breakthrough came in June ;last year, when Coca-Cola (Japan) Company started selling Coke, Fanta and Sprite in 275ml bottle cans through its ubiquitous vending machines.
For now, Coca-Cola Co does not use the cans in other countries, a Coca-Cola Japan spokeswoman said.
Japanese can makers expect the bottle can will help their industry win back market share from plastic bottles.
The use of plastic bottles (called "PET" bottles, after the kind of plastic they are made from) in Japan has soared since 1996, when bottle producers dropped an environment-friendly gentleman's agreement not to produce small bottles.
From just 2.2 billion in 1997, consumption of PET bottles rose to 8.8 billion last year, mainly at the expense of steel cans, whose numbers crumpled to 16.1 billion per year from 21.5 billion, according to Mitsubishi Materials.
Over the same period, aluminum cans held their ground with sales stable at about 18 billion cans per year, but the fizz was out of the market.
"The plastic bottle makers started invading our market. We developed the bottle can to restore market share for metal packaging," Daiwa Can's Adachi said.
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