Lightning strikes twice: Lessons learned from two food poisoning incidents in Japan

This case study examines the unique occurrence of two food contamination crises at Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd., the top company in the Japanese milk product industry. The separate incidents of food poisoning occurred in 1955 and 2000; the latter incident, involving more than 10,000 victims, was the worst case of food poisoning in Japanese history.The company handled the two separate food poisoning incidents in surprisingly different ways. How could a company that “got it right” the first time totally mishandle the second incident? This case examines crisis management and corporate reputation as well as unique cultural factors. The study uses secondary research to illustrate a number of key structural and communications problems that brought about the crisis and examines the aftermath and recovery for Snow Brand Milk Products.