Japan Goes Bananas Over Diet Fad

Teenage girls and young women in Japan, obsessed with that nation's latest silly diet fad, have caused a shortage of bananas.

The "Morning Banana Diet" has caused Dole Japan to boost its imports by more than 25 percent, but it's still hard to find the elongated yellow fruit in Japanese stores.

The diet, which directs fadmongers to eat nothing but bananas (with "room temperature water") in the morning, and pretty much whatever they want for the rest of the day, has lasted about four months so far. Given the history of Japanese diet trends, it likely won't last much longer. So Dole isn't reorienting its supply chain, though it is taking full advantage of current conditions by striking distribution deals with other international arms of Dole. Prices had risen 20 percent thanks to pre-existing shortages, so Dole seems poised to make a temporary killing.

As a Japanese wholesaler put it to Time magazine: "In the past, there were all kinds of hit diets. But they never last, do they? So, we don't really want to end up with an uncontrollable banana surplus."