A Japanese company has taken a small step forward in solving one long-standing problem for brewers: the inability to sell beer in plastic bottles.

Mitsubishi Plastics Inc. said it has reached an agreement to provide one-liter plastic bottles to Kirin Co. The bottles include a special coating to prevent the quality of their contents from deteriorating.

While some beer companies have experimented with using plastic bottles, it is extremely rare for a major Japanese brewery to do so, a spokesman at Mitsubishi Plastics said.

Plastic bottles are lighter and more durable than glass bottles, but are also known to allow permeation of gases including oxygen and carbon, which affect the taste of beer. Mitsubishi Plastic’s new bottles use a thin carbon film on the inside that makes them 10 times better at preventing the loss of oxygen, the spokesman said.

The bottles have been used for wine and sake products in Japan since 2010, but it is the first time a major brewery has agreed to use them for beer.

Still, it might be a while until plastic-bottled beer starts appearing on supermarket shelves.

The plastic bottles will be used only in Kirin's special beer delivery service and they will be sealed inside a package during distribution to avoid sun-light induced changes to its taste. The Mitsubishi Plastics spokesman said the company might offer bottles for small-sized craft beer makers or for locally brewed beers, but that it will have to develop ways to shield them from sunlight before they can be used more widely.