The Story Behind the Birth of Rice Bran Oil Ink - December 2008

The Story Behind the Birth of Rice Bran Oil Ink - December 2008

It all started in March 2008 with a casual chat between the top management of SANEI PRINTING, a printing company, and JNIH, an education-related company. Although environmentally friendly inks using soybean oil had been widely used in Japan, most of the soybeans used as raw materials were imported, and it was calculated that 1 kg of soybean oil emits 31.2 kg of CO2 over a transportation distance of 7,710 km. Against this backdrop, the conversation led to the idea that rice bran produced in Japan could be a substitute for the same vegetable oil.

Rice bran accounts for about 8% of brown rice and is produced in large quantities annually. Of this amount, only about 317,000 tons are used as a raw material for oil production, and it is believed that there is still a high potential for unutilized rice bran. Sanei Printing and ink manufacturer T&KTOKA decided to develop "rice ink" as a domestically produced raw material that would make use of this plentiful resource and also be advantageous from a food-mileage perspective.

Rice ink contains more than 20% rice bran oil in branch leaf ink and more than 7% in rotary printing ink. The product was put to practical use as a locally produced, locally consumed, and environmentally friendly ink originating in Japan, and was awarded the Eco-Mark as well as practical performance. The development was completed in a short period of time, an exceptionally fast development.

This story is worth retelling as a symbolic case in which a seemingly trivial conversation between top corporate executives sublimated into the creation of new value in terms of effective use of domestic resources and environmental friendliness.