Ishiya Sekkei's "White Lovers" cookies are a famous Hokkaido specialty, and have the same status as Tokyo banana.

(But Tokyo banana is actually a stigma for Tokyo natives. Tokyoites themselves don't eat Tokyo banana, and Tokyoites themselves don't know why it's a Tokyo specialty, while outsiders and foreigners are obsessed with it.)

Back to White Lover cookie maker Ishiya Sekiyaki, whose president Ishimizu Panzan was a passionate advocate of local public ****, and who wore many hats as a public official, and who was a role model of how to achieve success through one's own efforts.

But this is the same company that was revealed to have a "serious product quality problem":

The shelf life of its products, which was set at four months from the date of manufacture, was extended by one month to six months due to inventory adjustments. It was changed to six months.

White Lovers, a dessert with chocolate sandwiched between cookies, is perfectly good for six months, according to industry insiders.

(In my country, no one would be bothered by this "small problem", after all, how can it be considered a "serious quality problem" if you can't eat it?)

However, it was such a small matter that caused a shock to Japanese society:

August 2007, on the occasion of the Obon Festival, people with knowledge of the incident exposed it to the Sapporo City Health Station, and then Ishiya Sekkei publicly admitted that it had been a problem, and the president was forced to resign. After that, the president was forced to resign.

So why did this incident with Ishiya become such a scandal for the whole of Japan?

It was because Ishiya had lied to his customers.

As a highly recognized local confectionery manufacturer in Hokkaido, Ishiya has a heavy social responsibility. What Japanese society can't tolerate is not that white lovers can't eat it, but that Ishiya Sekiso sells it on the market with a lie on its back.

Japanese society believes that when there is no change in flavor or taste, even if it takes a little longer, the shelf life should be honestly labeled.

Japanese society has zero tolerance for lies by food manufacturers. ( Just as there is zero tolerance for cheating in Japanese schools.)

Warao Inamori pointed out at the World Management Conference in 2002 that managers must learn the "right way to behave" over and over again, and that they must not slacken off, or they will sink. If operators can't follow simple rules, they can't get their employees to follow them, and the business will be a scandal.

Honesty and integrity are the most basic principles that operators need to follow. Especially in the food industry where people's health is at stake.

Ishiya Sekkei was founded in 1947, and the founder's son, former President Ishimizu Senba, joined the company in 1967, the same year he decided to start producing assorted confectionery. At the beginning of the company's existence, the company went through a difficult time due to various price pressures from wholesalers. In order to be able to determine its own prices, Ishiya Sekkei developed a product called "White Lovers" and made it a hit, and since then it has become an unshakable specialty of Hokkaido.

However, as time went on, President Ishizu gave in to his own selfish desires. This can also be seen in the treatment of Ishiya China's employees. Ishiya Manufacturing has sacrificed the treatment that should have been given to its employees in order to increase its economic efficiency.

It was reported that Ishiya asked employees to take home the uniforms they wore in the factory and wash them themselves, converted the employee cafeteria into a warehouse, in addition to the high turnover rate due to irrational personnel management. In terms of production management, both on-site operations and organizational management were unsatisfactory.

The scandal did not happen suddenly one day. The accumulated selfishness of the operators would eventually explode completely somewhere inside the company.

Who calls the shots on the safety of food manufacturing?

Truthfully, the White Lover cookie factory scandal in our country will not necessarily stir up so much public anger, because many people's attitude toward food safety is:

And it's not the quality itself that's the problem, since it can still be eaten, the company pushes back the shelf life for a few days, there's no big deal.