Circular Economy in Japan
Shogo TANAKA
Director
Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Division
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan1

Policy History of CE in Japan• “Circular Economy Vision 1999” (released in July 1999)– Advocating “3R” principles– Main agenda was “appropriate waste‐management” to minimize landfilling** Capacity for landfilling : municipal waste (1999; 9 years, 2017; 22 years) , industrial waste (1999; 3 years, 2017;17 years)• Legislation– Fundamental Law (2001); setting waste‐hierarchy– Effective Resource Use Law (2001); requiring Design for Environment (DfE) to 69 items– Respective Recycle Laws
 Containers & Packaging ; glass, papers, plastics
 Home appliances (2001) ; 4 items (refrigerators, TVs, air conditioners, washing machines) End of Life Vehicle (2005)
 Others ; foods from business (2001), buildings (2002), small home appliances (2013)2

Achievement
Total waste emission and treatment
Landfilling

Recycling

Factors of curtailment of landfilling

Incineration

109 Mt

500

4(4%)

450
400
350

64(67%)

300
250
200
150

28(29%)

100

13 Mt

50

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
19992000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

0Landfilling (1990)

Reduction ofwaste emission

Recycling

Incineration

Landfilling (2019)3Main KPI for CE
Japan

EU27

ReduceDomestic Material Consumption per
GDP (t/Mio$)

259

298

Reuse

GDP share of Repairing/MaintenanceIndustries

3.5%

Germany 2.9%
France 3.8%

Recycled Material Use Rate

43%
16%

40%
12%

Incineration

13%

0.5%

RecycleEnergyRecovery

Waste Recycling Rate

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Next agenda• From “Quantity” to “Quality”– Recycling dramatically contributed to cutting final dumping– Main approach of recycling was not “closed loop” but “cascading”– To cut off the usage of virgin resources which leads to climatechange problem or resource dependency on third countries, weshould try to pick up “closed loop rate” of problematic materials.
• From “Downstream” to “Upstream” by Re‐commerce• From “Partial optimization” to “Total optimization” by Digital tech5

Origins of CO2 in Japan
Material Industries

33%

0.35bn t-CO

2

Other Manufacturing, 0.6

 Energy saving
 Using decarbonized energy＋ Reducing by eco-design Using recycled materials
 Longevity of goods bysharing, repairing, etc.

Ferrous/Non Ferrous

Energy Use

0.26bnt-CO2
Ceramic

Non Manufacturing,Plastics, Rubber

0.21

Chemicals
Transport, 0.19

Households, 0.17

Pulp/Paper

Feedstock

0.09億t-CO2

Chemicals

Textiles Reducing by eco-design Using recycled materials
 Longevity of goods bysharing, repairing, etc.

Energy Conversion, 0.08

（Unit︓Billion t-CO2）

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81

Plastics

17%
cut
96%
cut
83%
cut
55%
cut

214%
cut

4

79%
cut
53%
cut

369%
cut

6

Virgin materials

66%
cut9Recycled materials

750
Carbon intensity（t-CO2/t, Scope1~3 basis）

Low carbon intensity of recycled materials
Metal10Glass

Zinc productSteel canAluminum can

Steel productPET bottles(chemical recycling)

PET bottles(mechanical recycling)

Plastic bags

(mechanical recycling)

Plastic trays(mechanical recycling)7

Critical minerals and CE
Rare metal

Rare earth
Platinum group
Others (Nickel, Cobalt,Lithium, Mangan, etc.)

Base metal

Economic Security Law

Role of Circular Economy

 Designation of “Specific importantmaterials”
 Finance to private entities exploring andmining Public/private reserving

 Urban mining
 Easy segregation and sorting by Designfor Circulation
 R&D of recycling technologies
 Extending coverage of recycling law torare‐metal rich products (batteries etc.)

Reserve toproduction ratio ※1

Recycled material
use rate in Japan※2

Main application(Urban mining)Iron

69 years

15%

Automobiles, buildings, industrial machinery

Copper34 years

25%

Electric wire, electronic devices、motors

Silver21 years

14％

Electronic devices, PVs

Lead19 years

18％

Batteries

Zinc

16 years

3％

Plating, die‐casting

Gold16 years

44％Electronic devices, jewelry, medical use

Tin

15 years

54%Solder, tin plate, lead frame8※1 “Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023” (U.S. Geological Survey) ※2 “Material flow of mineral resources” (JOGMEC)

Policy frontier
AgendaApproach

Reduce/Reuse
CO2 curtailment

RecycleMeasures
 Fostering secondhand market (Re‐commerce) Boosting Longevity services (Repairing, Remanufacturing) Standardizing “Design for Circulation”– Easy segregation– Durability– Material saving– Front runner certification– Adding items (PVs, textiles, lithium batteries, etc.)

Resource autonomy
 Quantitative targeting of recycled material use rate on
critical minerals and high carbon intensity material
Visibility(Circularity, carbonfootprint)

Digitalization

 Data traceability by building digital platform (e.g. DigitalProduct Passport)
9New policy package; CE Transmission (3 gears)“Strategy of Resource‐Autonomous Circular Economy for Growth” (released in March 2023)
Gear 1.
Regulations/Rules Beef up “3R+Renewable”
 Expanding the coverage of “Design forCirculation” (DfC) to Battery, PV, Clothes etc.
 Setting quantitative/qualitative target ofcirculation
 De-regulation of municipal licenses forborder crossing waste collection

 Collaboration with overseas
 Cooperation of recovering critical minerals
with like-minded Indo-pacific countries Standardization (ISO) Data free flow within trustworthy countries

Gear 2.
CE Toolkit

 Financing for CE investment
 R&D, PoC
 Capital investment
 Fostering “Re-commerce” industry

 Financing for CE Digitization
 Designing architecture for data exchange
 System investment

 Financing for Standardization
 Design for Circulation

 Supporting Startups

Gear 3.
CE Partnership Setting Target Recycled material use rate Reducing/Reusing Standardization
 Design for Circulation
 Data exchange rules

 Initiating local projects
 Education
 Youth Business principles

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G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy andEnvironment @Sapporo (Apr. 15, 2023)• Ministers Communique (relating to CE)– Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency





Addressing the triple crisis : Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution
Collaboration under the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency
Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency Principle
Promoting transparency on circularity along entire value chains
International cooperation– Five‐Point Plan for Critical Minerals Security
 Recycle More and Share Capabilities“Recognizing the need to promote recycling of critical minerals at the global level, we will consider the establishment of initiatives,using available fora such as the MSP, to facilitate the environmentally sound management of e‐Waste (electrical and electronicwaste) and recycling among developing countries and like‐minded countries with advanced, environmentally sound facilities,
including smelting facilities.
We recognize that a similar approach to recycling of e‐Waste as mentioned above can be applied to the future recycling of usedlithium‐ion batteries and neodymium magnets, which will be discarded in huge quantities due to the scrapping of EVs, etc.
We also reaffirm that the importance of establishing domestic recycle chains with the best available technologies (BAT) and
fostering recycling capacities for recyclable materials such as e‐Waste and used Lithium‐ion batteries and neodymium magnets,
based on the industrial situation of each country.
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Ideas for cooperation with EU• Standardization of “Design for Circulation”– Sharing best practices of eco‐design for convergence asinternational standards (ISO)• Preparing an environment for actual “Data Free Flow withTrust”– Creating use cases of data exchange for CE and set standards
regarding interoperability and data sovereignty

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