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The story
A photo of a tuna pack sold at AEON was posted on the 5ch forum. In the “Made in China” label, only the character for “China” was printed faintly, making it easy to misread as “Domestic” (Made in Japan) at a glance — sparking debate over whether this was a deliberate trick to mislead shoppers. Opinions in the thread were split: some argued it was just an accidental smudge from a dirty print head, while others pointed to the different font as evidence of intentional tampering. The discussion also touched on how tuna origin labeling works in general, and frustration over high prices.
What people said
[Sad News] AEON invents shocking new method to trick shoppers into buying Chinese tuna thinking it's Japanese 😱🦁
There are probably people buying it thinking it's domestic at a glance… 😅🦁
What an outrageous way to trick middle-aged and elderly people with poor eyesight.
There's a limit to how low you can go.
If that were the case, everything would be faded.
The font is clearly different.
Can't afford that
This has gotta be intentional, no doubt about it
They should just label the sea it was caught in
Though I have seen Taiwanese tuna
If it's farmed, it matters a lot
With that format, you'd notice right away if the 'China' part looked faded
That's what determines whether you get promoted or not
Background and Key Points of Debate
In Japan, the Food Labeling Act (formerly the JAS Law) requires country-of-origin labeling on fresh food. For fish species like tuna, where farmed and imported products are mixed in with the rest, labels like “Domestic” or “Made in China” directly affect price and purchasing decisions, making legibility of these labels important information for consumers. The thread was split on whether the faint printing of just the “China” character was a deliberate attempt to mislead, or simply a printing glitch. If it were caused by a dirty print head, the whole character should have faded evenly, but as pointed out in reply #60, some commenters noted that the font itself looked different, so no conclusion has been reached. It’s worth noting that this case originated from a single photo posted on social media, and AEON has not issued any explanation or official statement. There have been past controversies about processing imported tuna to make its color look better, but that is a separate issue from this labeling mistake, and the two should not be confused.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “AEON starts printing only the “China” character faintly on Chinese tuna labels to trick people into thinking it’s domestic wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww“.
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