＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
1. Disinfectant Shortages Continue
Due to the decline in demand due to the resale ban and increased mask production and imports, mask prices have plummeted. While resellers who bought up masks have been selling off their stock, the disinfectant shortage continues. Even when masks are available, they are being sold at extremely high prices.
This is the bigger problem at present. To immediately enforce the “ban on the resale of disinfectant” (effective May 26, 2020), we must crack down on high-priced listings on online shopping sites. We also need to thoroughly crack down on unscrupulous individuals engaging in the heinous illegal practice of “hoarding and withholding.” Thermometers should also be subject to the same “resale ban” and crackdowns as disinfectant.
I hope the Japanese government will crack down on these unscrupulous individuals, with the goal of preventing them from reaping unfair profits.
I believe that the “Act on the Prevention of Hoarding and Withholding of Daily Necessary Goods” (officially the Act on Emergency Measures Against Hoarding and Withholding of Daily Necessary Goods, etc.), enacted in 1973 in response to the toilet paper shortage caused by the oil crisis, should be invoked to crack down on masks, disinfectant, thermometers, toilet paper, and other products.
2. Reasons for the Continuing Shortage of Disinfectant
The reasons for the shortage are similar to those for masks, but there are also unique circumstances, such as the small market size for pharmaceutical and quasi-drug containers; the high reliance on overseas production of the raw material alcohol, but production cannot keep up; and the uncertainty of future demand makes manufacturers hesitant to significantly increase production.
Non-specialist manufacturers such as beer makers and liquor brewers like Suntory Holdings and Takara Holdings have entered the market, but the shortage is likely to continue for the time being.
(1) There are few manufacturers that make pharmaceutical and quasi-drug containers, including disinfectant.
If they’re going to make the same plastic containers, it’s more profitable to make them for shampoo and conditioner, which have a larger market.
On the other hand, manufacturers of containers for shampoo and other products are cautious about switching to manufacturing disinfectant containers. This is because they learned a bitter lesson from the 2009 “swine flu” epidemic.
As soon as signs of an epidemic appeared, they received a huge number of orders, and even manufacturers that hadn’t previously made disinfectant containers rushed to get involved. However, once the swine flu subsided, sales quickly dried up, and unsold containers were sold off online for just 1 yen, creating a dire situation.
According to Toyo Glass, a manufacturer of plastic containers for pharmaceuticals and chemicals, order volumes are several dozen times higher than normal.
Kao has decided to increase production of disinfectant to 20 times the amount produced in a normal month last year, and will also sell refillable containers.
(2) High reliance on overseas production of pump containers and spray guns, with production unable to keep up.
There is a shortage of containers, particularly pumps and spray guns for injecting disinfectant.
Pumps and spray guns are imported from China, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, and other countries. Pumps, for example, require assembling approximately 20 parts, which is labor-intensive and unprofitable, leading to a reliance on imports. These imports have been stalled for several months due to the spread of COVID-19.
(3) Manufacturers are hesitant to significantly increase production due to the uncertainty surrounding future demand.
In January, false information circulating online claiming that alcohol-based disinfectants are ineffective against COVID-19 may have delayed the initial response. However, demand began to increase in early February after the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare issued the following unusual warning on its official Twitter account on February 6th.
“This information is incorrect. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is asking all citizens to use alcohol disinfectant in addition to cough etiquette, washing their hands, and gargling.”
However, due to the reasons mentioned in (1), manufacturers are unable to determine the extent of future demand increases, and are therefore hesitant to significantly increase production, which is another factor contributing to the shortage.
(4) Manufacturers’ production capacity is struggling to keep up with the explosive demand.
(5) Manufacturers are prioritizing supply to medical institutions, elderly care facilities, public transportation, etc.
(6) Is it possible that distributors, retailers, and resellers are buying up or hoarding disinfectant in anticipation of price increases?
As for future measures, I believe it is necessary to review the supply chain to enable domestic production of pumps and spray guns, and to establish a disinfectant stockpile system in preparation for further infection spread in the future after a second wave