But the Japanese manufacturers soon began looking for a local alternative.
Over the last several months, however, manufacturers have begun to wonder what to do with all of this food.
And foreign manufacturers that left in the early 1980's because of liability concerns are beginning to return.
The manufacturers began to compete to produce the best product.
By mid-2006 other manufacturers have begun to use similar approaches in their products.
It was more than ten years before major manufacturers began to offer them as an extra cost option.
"So the manufacturers began working out their own solutions for red and green," he explained.
Prices fall even more as other manufacturers begin selling the generic.
And rising rates might help to account for a phenomenon that manufacturers are just beginning to report.
These price increases also provide an umbrella under which American manufacturers may begin to raise their own prices.