TOKYO -- Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart Co. on Dec. 25 unveiled new discount labels for its "onigiri" rice balls, bento boxes and other items intended to help cut down on food wastage with a tearfully pleading character.

The labels will be rolled out nationally starting around March 2025. FamilyMart has a goal of cutting food wastage by 50% from 2018 levels by 2030, and this is among its strategies to achieve that.

During a roughly monthlong test prior to the national rollout that began at the end of October at a limited number of stores in east Japan's Kanto region, the purchase rate for discounted items increased by 5 percentage points. The company expects the labels to help reduce food loss by approximately 3,000 metric tons per year if the same effect is seen countrywide.

FamilyMart Co. executive Hiroshi Iwasaki said, "Consumers are becoming more environmentally aware. We thought up how to communicate in a way that is easy to understand and gets people to take action, and it has been effective, with some in the test run saying that they picked up products without thinking."

(Japanese original by Yuka Kato, Business News Department)