The Japanese futon ‘fraud’ that’s ruffling feathers
Investigation finds bedding filled with more bird feather from China and not the superior variety from Europe as advertised
Japan’s bedding industry association has flown into a frenzy over suspicions that the nation’s futons are not actually stuffed with high-quality European goose feathers but are instead padded with inferior imports from China.
An undercover investigation by the Asahi newspaper has revealed that 3.2 million feather futons are sold each year in Japan, with around half claiming to be filled with feathers from France, Denmark, Hungary or Poland.
We are checking our members’ performance, but we do not have the right to check other companies for this sort of fraud
The remainder identify China as the source of the filling or list no country of origin at all.
The Asahi investigation, launched after an industry association issued a warning to its members that they need to identify the source of the raw materials used in their products, suggests that a far higher percentage use Chinese feathers as filling.
“There are so many products on the market that display labels that say the feathers came from European counties that we began to have our doubts,” said Masao Yamamoto, senior managing director of the Japan Down Products Corporative Association.
“That is why we sent out a letter, in May 2014, to all the members of our association asking them to confirm the source of their feathers,” he told The South China Morning Post.