Whenever you pop into convenience stores or supermarkets in Japan, you can easily find little white plastic boxes of Frisk breath mints by the cashier.
While many consumers know these small white mints pack a powerful punch, few know they are made in Belgium and hold a dominant -- almost 50 percent -- share of Japan's 24 billion yen breath mint market.
The sugar-free mints, made by Frisk International NV, are packaged in small boxes that slide open and come in peppermint, spearmint and lime mint flavors. Some 75 million boxes of Frisk -- or 2.4 containers per second -- are sold in Japan each year.