"Go forward! Life with Soap."

Some things just don’t translate well…the story about the ants (could there be a more bizarre attempt at a segue??), a $10 comic book about using additive-free soap, the company staying in the red for seventeen years, and too much information about eczema, armpits, and onsens (linked together as they are below):

“You know it’s amazing how ants react to candies or cakes when they come across them. They just make a detour. Not only in Japan. I noticed the same thing in Mexico. The ants over there had the same reaction. This explains how ants all over the world are conscious of the dangers of artificial additives in modern food.”

Mitsunori Morita, president of Shabondama Soap Co., a Kitakyushu-based soap-making company, emphasized that the same thing can be said of the use of synthetic detergents. His solid belief in the merit of additive-free soap has been made more accessible since a comic book was published by Tokyo-based publishing company, Gentosha.

The book, costing 1,000 yen, and supervised by Morita himself, is titled “Susume! Sekken Seikatsu” (Go forward! Life with Soap). It is the story of Masae, a 31-year-old mother of two. Masae and her family enjoy the benefits of using additive-free soap, such as her 10-month-old baby boy’s relief from diaper rash after she changes from washing his clothes using synthetic detergents to soap without additives.

Morita was born into a family business dealing in soap in Kitakyushu in 1931. After taking over the family business, he switched to synthetic detergents from soap, as was the norm in the 1960s. However, he suffered from eczema around his armpits and stomach. “No doctor or hot springs could cure the itchiness,” he said.

If you need to read more, the rest of the article is here…(but I’m sure there’s some paint drying on a wall somewhere that is considerably more compelling).