Why don't wives buy salt and toilet paper? This strange rush to buy is puzzling. After the incident, a reporter went to investigate the cause of the incident, and only then did he get a preliminary understanding of what happened. It turned out that this rush came from the wrong understanding of an advertisement by some housewives. The day before the incident, a tissue company had placed an advertisement for a new variety of tissue paper it produced. The ad begins with catchy music, with a group of people vying to introduce the benefits of a certain brand of toilet paper, and ends with a certain wife hurrying to the Daimaru store in a similar position at the time, asking, "Is there any toilet paper again?" The clerk said helplessly: No, I'm afraid it will be next week.

To tell the truth, the design of this advertisement is mediocre, and compared with our "more camps, more camps, and then eat", it is not a little worse. However, some wives didn't notice it until the end of the advertisement, so they mistook it for the news that toilet paper was out of stock. Even the toilet paper at the Daimaru store was out of stock, and when the news spread, Japanese wives who were good at managing their families immediately began to rush to the surrounding stores and went straight to the toilet paper counter.

Driven by them, even the wives who knew that it was just an advertisement panicked - what would we do if this group of irrational guys snatched up the toilet paper? The idea of getting Japanese people to revert to using toilet chips or tiles is certainly unrealistic, but toilet paper is a real rigid demand. In this situation, if you don't have ten or eight bundles of toilet paper at home, who can sleep peacefully? As a result, the rush to buy toilet paper soon spread to the whole people, and an unprecedented rush to buy war began

Under such circumstances, toilet paper has become a destabilizing factor in Japanese society, and the nervous Japanese government has no choice but to send Mr. Vice Minister to refute the rumors. That evening, the Japanese government interrupted its evening news in favor of a public address to the nation by the vice minister of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the equivalent of the vice minister of commerce. Like most stereotypical Japanese people. The vice-minister first reported the national toilet paper production in Japan in 1974 and calculated the number of rolls of toilet paper per person based on the number of people in Japan, and then reported the plan for the production of toilet paper in 1975 and calculated the number of rolls of toilet paper that could be used per person in Japan in 1975 based on the population growth curve and the total number of people expected to be used in Japan in the next year. The conclusion was that every Japanese person in 1975 would have access to more toilet paper than the year before. Finally, the vice minister confidently told the Japanese people, "Everyone will be able to get enough toilet paper next year, so please use it with peace of mind." This speech came to be known as the "Toilet Paper Manifesto".

In fact, toilet paper production in Japan was normal at that time. However, this rush to buy was not new at the time. During that time, the Japanese people were rushing to buy something, and they were more fanatical than the Chinese stock speculation back then. Every once in a while, they would find a snap up on sugar, kerosene, onions – and salt supposedly...... At one point, even the detergent was looted. The empty shelves left leave store operators at a loss of choice whether to be happy or annoyed.

Why do the Japanese get caught up in this crazy buying frenzy? In fact, the reason is very simple, it originated from the oil crisis. Speaking of which, the "oil crisis" is not really a lack of oil, but in fact a crisis caused by the concerted efforts of various oil-producing countries in the Middle East to limit oil production and raise prices against Western countries. This should be regarded as an attempt by the Arabs to stop the plundering of resources.

However, the efforts of the Arabs have taken their toll on the fish in the pond. This pond fish is Japan, which has "left Asia and entered Europe". The sharp rise in oil prices has strained Japan's energy supply, and the Japanese, who have become accustomed to spending lavishly, suddenly found themselves panicked when faced with the problem of insufficient goods. Panic buying has become inevitable.

In the process of great economic development, for Japan. The most important thing that affects the speed of its development is probably energy. In the 60s and 70s, when Japan was developing very rapidly, its consumption of oil also reached an alarming level. However, the Japanese did not realize this at first, and because of the low price of oil in the 50s and 60s, Japan chose a development model characterized by the rise of heavy chemical industry in the process of development. This was also one of the characteristics of the Japanese economy during the period of rapid economic development in the sixties of the twentieth century.

However, in the seventies, this model was mercilessly hit by the "oil crisis". Due to the sudden situation, under the blow of energy shortage, a great crisis broke out in Japanese society. All over Japan. Countless workers and peasants who could not produce because they could not buy gasoline rose up and marched, and some of them even drove pigs into Tokyo and walked the streets, not knowing whether to satirize the rising oil prices for raising pigs or to show that officials are as stupid as pigs. The Japanese actually experienced the "supply by ticket" during this time - at that time, Japan had to have a "kerosene ticket" to buy kerosene for heating, otherwise, there was nowhere to buy it if there was money. (In Hokkaido, Japan, the lack of fuel caused by the oil crisis forced locals to use Malay-drawn trains to complete the transportation task.) ）

For example, at that time, the gasoline gas stations of the car were no longer open on weekends, so the cars at the major gas stations lined up in long queues, not only to refuel before the weekend, but also because everyone thought that the oil crisis would not be a short-term thing, and the price of gasoline would definitely rise in the future, so we should try to buy as many as possible. The rush to buy is being driven by the oil crisis in various parts of Japan. The aforementioned "toilet paper crisis" is just one of them.

The oil crisis made the Japanese realize that resources are precious. There is no free lunch in the world, the Americans are constantly sending troops, fighting and killing around the Middle East, it is not that the Americans are mentally abnormal, it is the interests of resources that are there. The fact that the United States can shut down the oil wells of the whole country and enjoy the oil of the Middle East has a lot to do with those aircraft carriers that drive to the Persian Gulf when they have nothing to do.

Whether it is the oil crisis or the rush to buy, it represents a difficult side for Japanese society. But the outbreak of the oil crisis is not a completely bad thing for Japan. In the era of energy shortages, the Japanese proposed measures to reduce energy consumption, such as time-limited elevators, reducing neon signs, and turning off street lights at 11 o'clock. Government departments have also proposed energy-saving schemes. For example, in order to reduce energy consumption caused by air conditioning in summer, government workers are encouraged to wear cool clothing. Prime Minister Masahiro Ohira personally demonstrated that he wore a jacket with his sleeves cut off and swaggered through the city, becoming a special sight. (To be continued.) )