Misunderstanding of Fujifilm Film Announcement Causes Panic on Social Media

Over the weekend, posts on Japanese social media (SNS, as they refer to it) indicated that Fujifilm would be ending support for black and white film development services, which many took to mean as dropping support for paper and chemicals.

One post on Threads, which was widely seen and shared, came from Photo Hut Yama-Chan, a specialty photo print store in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa.

Translated, the post says the following:

We have received notice that Fujifilm Imaging Systems will discontinue black-and-white film developing and printing services. Discontinued products/services: All “black-and-white film developing and black-and-white printing” products. End of sales date: Sales will end with shipments received by us on July 21, 2026.

This is quite a problem

We will urgently work on countermeasueres to avoid causing inconvenience to our customers.

Even for native speakers, this post sounds ominous and many took it to mean that Fujifilm would no longer be making chemicals or paper available for black and white film photographers. At first glance, due to the image Yama-Chan chose to use, it even looks like black and white film itself would be affected (there aren’t any very good ways to visualize this announcement through an image, so the choice is understandable). Due to poor translation on social media, it would be easy for English-speaking photographers to join the panic.

Luckily, that is not the case.

For those unfamiliar, Fujifilm currently (at least until the end of July), offers shops the ability to send print orders to it directly, where it would then handle the processing. This allows smaller shops that don’t have robust in-house darkroom printing capabilities — which sounds like the case for Photo Hut Yama-chan — to offer those services to their customers.

It is that service that is ending, not the general availability of the papers and chemicals.

While this is very likely a huge relief to film photographers, the fact remains that the initial fears were bolstered by the fact that the company hasn’t necessarily been the most supportive of its film division in recent years. While it remains easily accessible in Japan, international distribution of slide film has basically slowed to a drip. It has also discontinued multiple beloved films over the years, including 400H and Superia along with the discontinuation of Fujicolor Pro and Velvia 50 sheet film in 2021. Provia sheet film is so rare it may as well be discontinued. Fujifilm killed off the original Acros formula and paper products back in 2018; what remains is Acros II, which is manufactured by Harman.

Film photographers who are fans of Fujifilm live in constant fear of losing their favorite stocks. Earlier this year, Superia Premium was listed as discontinued at major camera shops across Japan, leading many to believe it was the company’s latest discontinuation. Luckily, it is still available. Given all these ups and downs, it’s not difficult to see how the black and white printing misinformation so quickly spread so quickly.

Image credits: Fujifilm