More Halloween-related stuff (though loosely related)

Sadly, the Quail has to bring this news today, a day when candy consumption is so highly celebrated in this country. In Japan today, and for many days forward, the subject of sweet, delicious, non-expired candy will be a sore one.

Simply, two major Japanese candy companies have been lit up for fraud. One of them committed your standard infractions, you know, out-of-date milk for cream puffs, falsifying expiration dates on cookies, that kind of stuff.

The other, which just celebrated its 300th (!) anniversary, had been doing business the same way since 1707 until the 1970s. It previously had made its goods fresh every day, but in the last 30 years, has been reusing 90% of its unsold goods.

“In the minds of most Japanese, the products were associated with happy times, birthdays or days when their fathers returned from a business trip bearing sweets, said Akira Shimizu, an economics professor and expert on product brands at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo.

‘In that sense, there is a strong feeling that these happy episodes are being denied,’ Shimizu said of the scandals. ‘It's as if the sunny days were all rotten after all.’”