Perfect Plus, a new line of high protein diet goods from Meiji.

Meiji Seika and has released “Perfect Plus,” a line of high-protein diet goods, including shakes, drinkable jelly, bars, and biscuits. The products are presented as “a diet that won’t leave you feeling hungry,” and contain extra amounts of nutrients that people usually don’t get enough of while dieting.

The line includes “Breakfast at Your Desk” bars, in cheese and honey-on-toast flavors. For lunch or dinner, there are five shakes to choose from, which contain 10 to 11 grams of protein and around 80 calories each. And for between-meal snacks, there are three flavors of drinkable jelly, which are high in amino acids and minerals, as well as diet biscuits.

A package of 15 Pefect Plus shake mixes retails for 3,333 yen ($36). Packages of 30 and 60 shake mixes are available through Meiji Seika’s website.

Integrated diet product lines have long been available in Japan via mail order catalogs and online shops. The Perfect Plus diet items are the first to be sold at supermarkets and some conveniences stores and therefore alongside regular food and beverage products. With consumers’ interest in nutrition and dieting set to continue to grow, more specialist products might be making this leap from niche to mainstream retail outlets in the future.

Learn more:
Other Meji Products
Meiji Official Site (Japanese)
Protein Plus Site (Japanese)

Kirin Lager packaging harkening back to the Meiji and Taisho eras.

Today Kirin releases to limited edition packages for its Kirin Lager brand, which is celebrating its 120th anniversary. The two new retro can designs recreates the look of the brand during the Meiji Era (1868 – 1911) and the Taisho Era (1911-1925). Kirin has timed the release of the nostalgic packaging to coincide with the holiday season, when more families are likely to drink beer at home.

Learn more:
Other Kirin products
Kirin official homepage (Japanese)

After the recent craze for chocolate and lassi drinks with salt, maybe the Japanese market is getting ready for even more adventurous combinations?

Salty chocolate snack from Meiji, two of several currently on the market.

Xylish, the gum brand from Meiji, has created cool new packaging for their boxed gum in a range of bright, eye-catching colors.

Meiji has released the premium Fran Whipps, which have a whipped-cream textured coating, flavours come in caramel or strawberry.

Advertisements for the campaign feature Takuya Kimura, of popular boy band Smap.

Meiji has launched an unusual campaign for their gum brand Xylish where customers can win one of 30 different designs of shorts-style underwear.

Learn more:
Other Xylish products
Meiji official site (Japanese)
Xylish product site (Japanese)

A new TV program focuses on parents harassing teachers.

“Monster Parent” a new drama series on Fuji Television premiered yesterday. The story revolves around a female lawyer at a prestigious law firm who is summoned to a public school in the suburbs to help the board of education deal with a “monster parent.”

“Monster parent” is a term that only recently began appearing in the Japanese media. Japanese parents long had a reputation of completely trusting teachers, especially at prestigious schools, and supported the decisions made about their children’s education by officials. This has changed, and many critics argue that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.

Yoshihiko Morotomi, a professor at Meiji University who has written a book on the topic, says that parents will strongly oppose even the slightest signs of favoritism or singling out students. Morotomi relates stories of mothers insisting on sitting in on their children’s classes and taken pictures or filming while classes are in session to make sure all is fair. In a recently reported case, an elementary school staged staged a performance of Snow White in which all 25 girls in the class simultaneously played the title character, as all of the parents pressured the school not to favor any one student with the star role. In extreme examples parents will harass a teacher they believe has wronged their child until that teacher agrees to resign.

That a prime-time series has been based on the topic indicates that it is very much in the popular consciousness, and it is possible that educational or even legal reforms will be made to address the problem.

Acerola berries on the bush.

In the summer of 2007, the Japanese summer drink market was dominated by acai berry drinks. This year, it is acerola, also known as “Barbados cherries.”

Acerola, a berry native to the Caribbean, is high in natural vitamin C to boast the immune system, and bioflavonoids, natural pigments which have only recently been understood to have health benefits such as improving circulation and acting as a natural antibiotic.

Nichirei released a drink containing 4% acerola juice in water in the spring, and has since followed up with a much smaller and stronger drink of 70% acerola extract with supplemental vitamins and minerals. This 100 milliliter drink is positioned as something closer to an over-the-counter medicine to ward off summer colds, rather than a drink to quench thirst.

Three acerola drinks from Nichirei in varrying sizes and strength.

Other drinks mixing acerola with fruit juice, water, or tea have been launched, and acerola extract has also been popping up in chewing gum and candies. All this makes acerola look like the flavor fad for this summer – but Japanese consumers’ obsession with ingredients that benefit health could turn acerola into a standard ingredient with much longer staying power.

An acerola and lemon drink from Meiji.

Learn more:
Other Meiji products
Other Nichirei products
Meiji official homepage (Japanese)
Nichirei official homepage (Japanese)

Xlylish gum in versions aimed at men and women.

For a maker of a general item such as chewing gum to exclude 50% of a potential market would seem like an ill-advised move. But there are male and female versions of fragrances, so why not separate versions of gum?

Major Japanese makers such as Lotte and Meiji are offering two versions of packaging for their popular lines, one with more feminine designs, and the other with more masculine color schemes, or creating completely new products with names such as “Glamatic” or “Male Fragrance.” The gum flavors are also designed to suit male and female tastes. Glamatic has a fruity taste geared toward women, while Male Fragrance contains a rose/menthol combination that is said to curb body odor by adding a whiff of rose the consumer’s perspiration.

Glamatic itself is divided into two package designs, mirroring the most noted fashion styles of young women in Japan: pretty and pink for “Lolita” fashion, and black and burgundy for “Goth” fashion. Convenience stores have caught on the this new twist in marketing by putting male and female gum on separate shelves.