Japanese packaging equipment made its first appearance in the 1910s when bottling machines for beer and canning machines for fish and meat were developed. But subsequent wars prevented manufacturers from developing other types of packaging equipment. It was 30 years later in 1947 when a caramel packaging machine was developed that the packaging machinery industry was beginning to take shape in Japan.
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In the 1950s, various kinds of packaging equipment were developed including cigarette packaging machines, powder food and medicine pouch packaging machines, bagging machines for, among others, instant noodles, vacuum packaging machines, cartoning machines, tying machines and paper strapping machines. Packaging equipment continued to be developed in a wide variety in the following years. It may be said that the industry had built up its foundation in the 1960s. Japanese packaging machinery industry came to be known both at home and abroad during this period.
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Supermarkets made their debut in the mid-1960s and spread throughout the nation. Consumer goods including foodstuffs were sold in a "self-service" method in these stores, making it necessary to prepack them so that a customer can take them to a cashier by himself. Demand for packaging equipment soared as a result. Since, however, packaging machinery manufacturers hadn't have enough experience to satisfy all the requirements of end users, they positively tied up with the U.S and European manufacturers to raise their technical standards.
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The first oil crisis that hit the world's economy in 1973 forced Japan to enter a slow growth era, and a mass production method so far dominant in consumer good manufacturing gave way to a diversified small-quantity production method. In addition, consumers' needs became more diversified. As a result, the end users' demand for packaging equipment came to be focused on versatile machines capable of multiple types of packaging and also on the equipment manufactured according to their own specifications. The equipment made in technical cooperation with foreign manufacturers could no longer satisfy the needs of Japanese end users, and efforts to develop equipment capable of meeting their needs began in full swing. It was in the 1970s that Japan laid the foundations for the present packaging machinery technologies. Representative among them are technologies for adopting microcomputer control to packaging equipment and a heat pipe to heat sealing devices.
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Japan is now one of the largest packaging machinery producers in the world. Her production, exports and imports of the equipment are as provided below.
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