Fair Trade still has a long, long way to go in Japan. It’s one of those areas, like supporting charities or human rights, that puts Japan to shame. It may have coin lockers and conveyor-belt car parks that are a decade ahead of anything we see in the West, but when it comes to issues such as those mentioned above it remains firmly in the mid-20th century.
Recently, I’ve done a wee bit of work with Choco-Rev, a company set up to promote fair trade chocolate in Japan. It seeks to educate people about issues such as the horrendous conditions that child labourers have to endure in the cacao farms of West Africa, and the environmental cost of cocoa production.
A Chocolate Revolution is indeed called for.