I know any jacket exposed to light will fade and the inner cardboard might turn brown/yellow but I've noticed a consistent trend where Japanese jackets seem more prone to discolouration and age spots than those from USA or Europe.

USA jackets often have a glossy finish which seems to protect them from handling whereas Japanese jackets often have a matt absorbent finish which might hide fingerprints initially but will lead to brown spots over time. USA jackets can also be wiped clean with a slightly damp cloth and restored to their former glory whereas I wouldn't dream of doing that to a Japanese jacket since there is often very little surface to rub.

Whilst Japanese jackets are usually considered better quality for their strength and general build quality (intricate corner joints instead of basic overlapping), it does seem there was room for improvement. If they had put the same high gloss finish as most USA jackets then that may have helped prevent foxing altogether.

I've bought a great many LDs, some USA titles from Japan and Japanese titles from USA.
The specimens coming from Japan are almost always better condition but Japanese jackets no matter where they come from do seem more likely to have brown age browns than any other sleeves I've encountered. I guess this makes trying to own perfect pristine copies an even greater challenge.

The brown spots are really known as Foxing, it happens more with antiquarian books and prints.
My guess is that its more humid in Japan and also something to do with the way the paper is made, more like 19th and 20th century paper.

Also something to do with storage, as is the case with Foxing from books

I thought the new official name for it was "pizza dirt"?

I've never really thought about it. Always thought it had something to do with the humidity. My understanding is that Japan is fairly humid. Doing some quick searches online, it seems what causes this phenomenon is a bit unknown and only speculated. I still haven't experienced any jackets have developed foxing after import. I do have several that already had it when I got them, but doesn't appear to have gotten worse. Doesn't seem to be much of a difference if the surface has a matte or glossy finish. Got a box set that has a standard glossy finish, but has foxing stains.

Humidity is certainly a factor, especially in Hong Kong. There are a lot of really rough looking specimens from lesser known asian territories on Ebay, most likely due to humidity and also because they are ex rentals badly treated.

Does anyone know if the paper used in laserdisc jackets from Japan is made from a slightly different composition? Perhaps different tree pulp or even rice in the mixture? If so I wonder could that also be a factor in the formation of foxing.

I just know I've never seen genuine foxing on USA jackets no matter how grubby or mishandled they were and I own some filthy examples from USA. Like greasy 'pizza' fingers used to open the jackets that then became a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria on the inner mouth of the jacket which is exposed paper.

Learn something new everyday. I've seen this on some otherwise excellent condition HK discs I got.

I wish he was complaining about the foxing, it was something else he "found"

But from now on in think we should call all flaws "pizza dirt"
My disc has poor playback what is it? well its pizza dirt

The answer is OBA. The way the Japanese mills produce paper since the dawn of (UNIX at least) time always requires addition of lots of brightening agent to give the paper that extra white look the love. The downside is, as time goes by, surprisingly mostly regardless of the environment condition(!), those agents go bad and stain the paper. I am not sure how many people understand the analogy but the effect an OBA has on paper is the key factor in determination of originality of a photograph. Traditional photo papers made back in the day never used brighteners, while those made since the late 1950 use them on regular basis especially for the Resin Coated types. So for an average photo collector without special skills and knowledge , armed only with a "black light" lamp- any cheap UV lamp used in nail care would do- the bluish shine produced by OBA treated papers under the UV is the dead giveaway for a "fake" photo. If you put your Japanese LD/LP jacket or a magazine under a UV light source it will shine blue. If you have ever seen Japanese wartime photos you know the devastating effect of brighteners on the paper. The Japanese photo papers have ALWAYS been using some sort of chemical brighteners, regardless of age.
So if the current look of the sleeve of your "Private Film of David Bowie" hits your eye like a big pizza pie that's not amore- that's OBA, the brighteners that accelerate the aging and eventually decomposition of the paper it is made from.

I believe the US printing plants used some type of kraft paper for LD sleeves and I think it might even have something to do with OSHA and the like, those thing that eventually banned good, lasting, quality automotive paint in the US and AFAIK now in the Union of European Socialist Republics.

Very interesting, thanks.

So many things contain optical brightening agents & it appears we like everything shiny white.

Got a few titles from Japan, same title - same production run, where one has the brown spotting on the cover but the other is totally blemish free. Light apparently is a killer & can accelerate the issue - how it was originally handled & stored plays a roll also.

Great post, thanks again ldworld .

Cheers

That is very interesting indeed.

I have a lot of stuff printed in Japan. I've been slowly collecting it for 35 years. While it's less obvious now I can assure you that stuff printed in Japan is different, or at least it was 15 years ago. Now it seems...less different.

From the smell, regardless of the age, I can always tell if something was printed in Japan or elsewhere. When this smell went away as print technology changed I got sad. I really miss the half newsprint anime magazines and Jump magazine on low grade newsprint.

Up until now I had assumed the pizza dirt was caused by microorganisms.

Very interesting, but I had a giant collection of Japanese toys from the 70s-90s and never had any of the foxing issues.
So unless the OBA was used in all paper from Japan i don't know how true this is for ALL printed cardboard/paper products.
Some but not all.

It is not correct to compare the value of a disposable product to something made to last, with the intention to keep it. When the Japanese economy hit the all time low during the final years of the Great East Asia War they printed those "photo reviews" trumpeting yet another "glorious victory" of the "Undefeated Imperial Army" on kind of paper one would think twice to wipe a workshop wrench with.

One would not expect to purchase a 300 yen comic mag and be blown away by the print and paper quality ,as the final destination for that publication would most likely be a garbage bin. If on the other hand, one is contemplating spending about 20K Yen on an "art book" (whatever that means) the quality of materials it's made with plays the key role in the decision to part with that amount of money which is substantial even in Japan. There is a well-founded expectation that this kind of purchase is an investment the value of which could be appreciated in the future.

This is why the quality of a disposable box is not the same as the quality of an LD jacket, the kind of luxury goods which, priced at Y5800-Y7800 is not something one would find in trash.

While there definitely are a lot of paper product made in Japan without any OBA or other magic potions added the top tier papers always use such agents, the composition and quality of which, of course has changed as any chemical product would over time, thus maybe, lessening its side effect on the paper.

Well you obviously don't know the types of toys.
Anyway As you just stated its something that wasn't in all paper goods from Japan.
I have some prints for anime's that never had any foxing.

So while this theory may be for some papers its really not for all papers, collectible and non.

You can search up the Japanese toys made by Popy, Bullmark, Takatoku, Takara and more.
Model kit boxes also never had the foxing.
My collection consisted of over 400 pieces with ages ranging from the early 1970s to the late 1980s with the quality print as you said.

So much paper product from Japan that doesn't have any foxing.















.

OMOSHIROI

Thanks for your great posts, really interesting.

Just wondering what artbook cost Y20,000 though? Are you talking anime artbooks? They're usually less than Y5,000 retail for the best ones. Maybe you're talking idol photo books? Also much less than Y20K retail. Gallery grade hardcover artbooks on great art? Maybe Y20K??

I've been parusing my modest collection of anime artbooks from the 80s and 90s. Macross Perfect Memory from '83 has foxing on the gray obi, the book itself is fine. Dragon's Heaven from '85 has some very minor "foxing" on the cover, Macross 7 Ａｎｉmation Materials from '95 has no foxing and very bright whites on the dust cover and in the book itself....hmmm

That's the sort of price for an average Japanese laserdisc which begs the question why are the jackets so susceptible to foxing. OBIs fox too but nowhere near as often and presumably they are intended to be disgarded but no one is going to throw away the jacket. I just think whatever process Japan was using is flawed since their products were sold as premium products but the jackets don't always hold up.

Well, that's exactly what SONY wanted you to do with the introduction of their 300 and the 400 DVD changers. They even provided "jacket picture" with each disc authored by them and the changer was (still is) able to display the pic on the TV it was hooked up to.



They did everything they could to sell the product. They made you THINK this piece of plastic is a "premium" product which justifies the price. They made you BELIEVE and you fell for for. Do they care what happens next? Nobody does. They have to make money and keep the workforce busy. That's one of the faces of the thing known as progress. Could they predict the future? Then again do they care or have to? The past tense used in describing the "process" does indeed confirm that the "process" is flawed by today's standard but was not considered such back in the day. If my luxury car from 1995 is a pile of rust now, does it mean "it doesn't hold up"? To what? And above all that , nothing is perfect and the perfection can never be achieved but if one day it has been achieved then life will no longer have the purpose- that the basis of Asian in general and Japanese in particular outlook on everything that's going on under between Heaven and Earth.

DOMO



I just made up a random figure which is in the ballpark of what I'd pay for a book of my interest. I usually buy those that fall under the classification of "antiquarian" so Y20K is an average figure for that kind of book. So for the sake of simplicity let's assume the Y20K "artbook" (or just a book) in question is an OOP of recent vintage with the current market value of 20K...

This boxset Ed Sullivan Show, The (1999) [PILF-2809] originally cost 38,000 yen.
I've 2 copies of it. One pristine and one with some foxing.

Given this would fall into the premium price bracket and the materials used in both copies would have been identical its still a mystery why one has foxing and the other has not. I'm still inclined to believe the foxing developed on the copy that was 'handled' as the other copy still had its original plastic cover fully intact and was literally as new still. You can easily tell if an item has been handled by breathing on it and seeing the finger marks etc.

Hmm, LD world is really interesting. Yes, I can agree that Japanese are good at living "in the moment" in general (I believe something to do with the distinct possibility of being destroyed by a massive earthquake/tsunami at any second) and making the product look as good as possible when new is something they would do, even knowing it would deteriorate later.

Interesting LDfan. Perhaps some interaction between the oils in human skin and the chemicals in the paper or Oba, cause/accelerate foxing? What do you think ldworld?

I could name many other examples where the consistent themes are:
1) Japanese title
2) Copy that has foxing has definitely signs of more usage, fingerprints & handling

Interestingly age doesn't seem to be to factor as I've seen pristine white 35 year old jackets while other jackets from as late as even 2001 have signs of foxing along the edge of the jacket which would be a classic area that might be touched by a hand.

So overall I'd say the foxing is triggered by some sort of chemical reaction as a result of handling and that the more matt absorbent finish of Japanese sleeves lends itself to this process. The more glossy finish on USA jackets seems to protect them from this happening.

That's why I never touch sleeves directly and always make sure my hands are clean and bone dry when handling the bags or inner sleeves as those will be in contact with the inside of the jacket. So far I've seen no acceleration in the formation of foxing on any sleeves I own in 11 years of collecting. Any that had no foxing to begin with remain free from it and again that seems to match my findings that as long as I don't touch them they will be fine. The big problem is I can't tell what the person before me was doing with the sleeve before I bought it until I inspect it first hand!

You might be thinking at this point the solution is easy - buy only sealed copies!
Well I've loads of sealed copies and even those are not without their problems.
I own some brand new still sealed LDs with gold OBIs that show every little fingerprint including those received in the factory. I've examples where those same 'still sealed' jackets foxed in the areas where they were handled which is further confirmation of what I have suggested. Again identical titles which had no signs of handling were perfect.