Japanese consumers have embraced a campaign to address their addiction to plastic bags, but new measures to combat marine pollution have created an unforeseen problem: a rise in shoplifting.
All of Japan’s stores were in July required to introduce a fee for plastic shopping bags, with the aim of encouraging shoppers to use their own reusable bags rather than pay for carrier bags.
While supermarket and convenience store chains reported a dramatic drop in plastic bag use as consumers quickly changed their shopping habits, a significant proportion said some were exploiting the campaign against single-use plastics to shoplift.
Despite being encouraged to use regular in-store baskets, some shoppers place items in their own bags, making it harder for staff to spot stolen goods, local media have reported.
At Akidai Sekimachi Honten, a supermarket in Tokyo, about 80 percent of customers started bringing their own bags when the plastic bag charge was introduced, Jiji Press has reported.
The country’s three largest convenience store operators reported a similarly impressive trend, saying that 75 percent of their customers had shunned plastic bags in July.
However, a rise in shoplifting has forced the store to tighten security, even including measures to combat the theft of baskets some light-fingered customers use to carry their shopping home rather than pay for a plastic bag.
“We’re not OK with customers taking away baskets, as they cost a few hundred yen each,” Hiromichi Akiba, the supermarket chain’s president, told Jiji. “We thought we would be able to reduce costs by charging for plastic bags, but we’ve been facing unexpected expenditures instead.”
Shop assistants have said they are reluctant to confront people they suspect of placing items into a reusable bag with the intention of leaving without paying.
“It’s difficult to judge whether they are stealing or not,” one Tokyo supermarket employee said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not