Sakumaseika, the Japanese confectioner whose candy drops featured in the Studio Ghibli film "Grave of the Fireflies,” is calling it quits after 114 years due to soaring costs and a pandemic-induced fall in sales.
The Tokyo-based company will end operations on Jan. 20, a spokeswoman said by phone, attributing the closure to rising raw material and energy prices as well as staff-hiring challenges. The unlisted company had a net loss of ¥152 million ($1.04 million) in the fiscal year ended September 2021, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Sakumaseika got its start in 1908 at the tail-end of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), selling candy drops in iconic red tin cans until its factories in Japan and China's Manchuria were destroyed in World War II, according to its website. The company was revived in 1948 under a different owner and had remained a fixture in candy shops and supermarkets nationwide.
The candy drops are perhaps best known to people outside of Japan for their appearance in the 1988 anime film depicting the hardships of young siblings Seita and Setsuko in wartorn Kobe. Sakuma Confectionery, a separate company that makes a similarly-branded product packaged in green tin cans, remains in business.
