TOKYO, June 24 — The production of glass bottled milk has been declining in Japan, with the total production volume in 2023 dropping by 70 percent from a decade before.
Most milk consumed at households and as part of school lunches now come in paperboard cartons because of the convenience in handling them.
Meanwhile, there is a constant demand for milk in glass bottles at such places as sento bathhouses where drinking one after a bath has been a custom for generations.
Moves have recently been seen to boost demand for bottled milk. A new bottled milk factory opened in the city of Fukuoka, and efforts are being made to integrate bottled milk in people’s everyday lives by offering it at various locations including tourist spots and gyms.
According to the agriculture ministry, production of milk provided in glass bottles of less than 500 milliliters totaled 4,392 kiloliters in 2023, down 10.9 percent from a year before. The amount dropped 69.6 percent from 2013.
The number of factories producing bottled milk halved during the decade and major dairy companies are ending production of bottled milk one after another.
The most recent case was Meji Co., which ended sales of its glass bottled milk and coffee beverage products including Meiji Milk and Meiji Coffee in the end of March. The firm faced difficulty obtaining bottles due to supply issues caused by aging bottle washers and bottle manufacturers withdrawing from business.
Shrinking demand for bottled milk is attributable to changes in consumer lifestyle.
Bottled milk had been a staple, delivered to homes and offered during school lunches. However, it has increasingly been replaced with milk packaged in paper cartons widely available at supermarkets and other stores.
Opportunities to buy bottled milk are declining as more retailers are turning to cartons that are easier to handle and carry out hygiene control.
While the overall production of bottled milk is falling, some remain committed to glass packaging.
Green Coop in the city of Fukuoka, a collective made up of 16 consumers’ cooperatives mainly in western Japan, started operating in March a new bottled milk factory that carries out the whole process of production from manufacturing feed using domestically-made ingredients to raising dairy cows and bottling milk.
It has the capability of producing 7 million bottles of milk a year, responding to stable demand among coop members.
Yamamura Milk, a company in Ise, Mie Prefecture, which has been producing bottled milk for more than a century, runs a store along the approach to the Ise Shrine, one of Shinto’s most important sites that attracts a large number of tourists.
Yamamura Milk’s bottled milk proved popular among tourists and its sales in fiscal 2024 rose nearly 20 percent from 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The firm hopes to create more opportunities for consumers to drink bottled milk, such as through offering milk in glass bottles regularly at gyms.
Yamamura Milk’s bottled milk products that are showing increasing sales PHOTO COURTESY OF YAMAMURA MILK