Why Japan's Chip Maker Makes Seaweed-Free Nori From Potatoes

In Japan, a chip maker made nori from potato starch, and a nori maker made chips.

▼ About This Episode

On a muddy forestry field trip high in the mountains, Sakura smells the sea. One of the crew has just sat down on a log for his break with a bag of seaweed-and-salt chips, and his family back in Saga, Japan's top nori region, grows the real thing: nori, the dried seaweed pressed into thin black sheets that wrap sushi rolls and rice balls. Three poor harvests in a row, he says. The Nikkei reports the same for nori nationwide, and says the average price of a sheet more than doubled.

Then Haru brings up Calbee, Japan's biggest potato-snack company. When it washes potatoes for chips, starch comes off, and it used to sell that starch as animal feed. Mixed with konjac flour, colored deep green and baked thin, that starch became a substitute nori, with no seaweed in it. It can't wrap a rice ball yet. For now it's a seasoned snack, about a dollar and a quarter a bag, sold at one Calbee shop. On the other side, a nori company founded in 1894 turned nori itself into wavy chips, with a crunch it says sits between a sheet of nori and a potato chip.

The chip company makes nori, and the nori company makes chips. Where you live, which everyday food would someone make without the real thing, if it ran short?

▼ Featured Links

Calbee — the potato-snack company behind the substitute nori: https://www.calbee.co.jp/

▼ Timestamps (Chapters)

00:00 - Smelling the Sea in the Mountains

00:47 - Three Poor Nori Harvests in a Row

01:25 - The Chip Company That Made Nori

02:38 - The Nori Company That Made Chips

03:16 - The Real Thing Gets Another Winter

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▼ The Sources Behind Each Episode

Every episode starts from Japanese-language reporting.

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🎵Music by Ivan Ohanezov from Pixabay

#JapanBusiness #JapaneseCulture #NarrativeJapan #JapanPodcast #Nori #JapaneseSnacks