Japan running short of butter

use olive oil and balsamic for your bread instead of poxy butter...

Butter is not a staple "food" in any country ! Butter is a condiment or ingredient used to prepare a large variety of foods.

Butter is a staple food in which country?

I don't get it. The US could supply Japan with all the butter it could possibly use. Yet the store shelves have run dry ! Why should the common folk have to suffer for the governments inability to work in cooperation with the USA ??? This is another perfect example of Japan cutting off it's nose to spite it's face ! Where are the protests ? What are the houswives in Japan doing ? Why oh why have the locals given up so easily ? What the hell has happened to that "fighting spirit" we always hear of ??? This is just the tip of the iceberg. Japan is about to hit freefall !

Just another example of how drastically Japan differs from more advanced nations like America. Once again consumers are forced to "buy what's available" rather than what they want ! Make no mistake... this is only the beginning. And the Americans, with it's 160% food sufficiency rating, is about to hold Japan's feet to the fire ! Sorry Nippon... you lose ! Let the butter wars begin !

capone, margarine was invented in the 1800's.. a wee bit before plastic and petroleum chemistry.

sumobob, maybe other countries ought to check out miso (soy) and fish!

I do not understand... why is the shortage? if the price goes up, people consume less. If a company can make profit importing butter, it should do it freely. From this article I understand that, to protect local producers, the government does not allow the free trade of a non basic product as butter (which obviously, like with rice, did not bring the expected results). Why does the government have to intervene? What are they defending? The right to eat as much butter as people like?

The cows are coming home... The lies are catching up with them. Japan is far from self sufficiency in dairy products. There are so few cows in Japan that most of the milk we drink is actually reconstituted Aussie and Kiwi powdered milk. Cost of shipping and cut backs in shippments due to boat shortages is causing the shortage. Besides, China is offering more to Oz and NZ. Supplies are drying up. This is the land of false economic reports hence they're never prepared. In fact they actually start to believe their own lies to the extent of looking for counter measures on the same lies - eg. how to fly in extra feed.

Can't they use peanut butter, or jam instead of butter? You don't always need butter.

I'm confused. Why butter? There doesn't seem to be any shortage of other dairy products; the supermarket is filled with milk, cheese, icecream and metric tons of yogurt.

(PS margarine is supposed to be terrible for you, if you believe the nutritionists. Of course, they used to say the opposite 20 years ago... either way, it doesn't taste nearly as good.)

I also heard that margarine is worse for you than butter.

Butter makes my potato puree marvelous. It adds magic to my guacamole, and tastiness to my homemade tomato salsas. I make wonderful garlic butter, adding herbs, garlic and a dash of salt. Butter goes well with pancakes. It brings out the taste of pork and chicken better than oil. If I had an oven, I'd tell you about cakes, turkey and chicken.

Hokkaido Snow Brand butter is actually, pretty good. A small box of it lasts about three months for me, since not much is needed and I don't use it everyday. It's not salty and has excellent texture. Today at the supermarket, I saw several ladies approach the butter shelves, but there was only margarine boxes and ONE type of butter that is 100yen over the usual price. The ones that decided to buy bought butter, despite the cost.

switch to olive oil and stop imitating tasteless Americans.

Ahem, excuse me but the best butter comes from either England, New Zealand or France.

if they get snow brand to increase production, the next headline we read will be "japan running short of people"

Thank God, maybe they'll stop putting butter where it doesn't belong now! Like on top of pasta and steak.....NASTY!

There are plenty of steak and pasta dishes that use butter, FishScratch. Fettucini alfredo, for example. I thought margarine was worse for you than butter.

Now, if we can only find some way to blame this on global warming, bio-ethanol and US military presence in Okinawa...

“The bottom line is, however, butter is not our staple food,” Hashimoto said. “Personally, I can happily switch to margarine.”

Ware ware Nihonjin ha...... <rolls eyes>

Silly Japanese serfs. How dare you try to vary your diet and enjoy the foods and tastes of the world. Your only need Japanese rice, Japanese miso and Japanese fish to sustain you! Ganbare!

Thank God, maybe they'll stop putting butter where it doesn't belong now! Like on top of pasta and steak.....NASTY!

Japan has so far escaped the shortages of rice besetting other nations

Will they ever break out the foreign rice that they keep stacked in taxpayer-funded warehouses?

margarine is, scientifically speaking, only one molecule different from plastic, and was invented accidentally while looking for a new form of plastic...it doesn't melt if you leave it in the sun, among other unpleasantness...but yeah, go ahead and eat it hashimoto

Good for them, that stuff is bad for ya. Getting onto the dairy/fructose train is the one of the worst things a country can do to itself.

Sarge, you can't because Margarine doesn't harden enough when you add other things to it. Cooking with Margaine makes things too soft. To make the cake yes, but who wants runny frosting? Good cooks need realy ingr.

switch to olive oil and stop imitating tasteless Americans. BTW, where the heck use butter the Japanese? Another option is importation, but we all know that opening the markets to foreign uncontrolled products might cause a huge cataclysm in the Japanese economy, something called 'free trade'...

The American Dairy Association needs to get over to Japan ASAP. Just push the Beef guys out of the way since they can't seem to get anything right.

noborito - Substitute margarine for the butter. Just try it!

I've bought maybe 2 sticks of butter in the past 2 years. The far cheaper if not actually any healthier margarine does the trick! And some margarines, like Promise in the States, tastes more like butter than butter! Promise! xD

Without butter how would I make my Frosting...

3 tablespoon flour 1 cup milk 1 cup sugar 1 cup butter 1 teaspoon vanilla Cook flour and milk until thick. Cool. Cream sugar butter and vanilla together Add the cooked ingredients and beat until like whipped cream.

Just try it!

In this age of "meta-bo" in Japan, everything is bad for you... except for certain teas, but only if you are over 40 and have a waist measurement greater than 80cm (for males).

"emergency imports of butter"... not a chance.

butter is better for you than margarine... in terms of anything... and olive oil is your friend, but please use high quality cold pressed olive oil for your bread.

I must admit I proudly "smell of butter"

Butter is really not good for you, in terms of fat and cholesterol. The Japanese ought to pick up the Mediterranean habit of using olive oil with their bread. Or stick to margarine.