Japan’s Circular Economy Vision Under the Action Plan | Chapter 13Advancing the Transition to a Circular Economy

The policy centers on transitioning to a circular economy that simultaneously secures resources, addresses resource constraints, strengthens international industrial competitiveness, and contributes to economic security. It will improve resource efficiency and circularity across the entire value chain while creating an environment in which initiatives with low short-term economic rationality can also receive social recognition.

The circular economy is positioned as a foundation for building a sustainable society, including net zero through greenhouse-gas reductions, waste reduction and pollution prevention, and nature positivity through reduced pressure on natural capital. Integrated governance will limit trade-offs among policies and enhance synergies among the environment, economy, and society.

Resource circulation will be advanced in a manner that connects it with solving regional challenges, promoting local industries, creating employment, and revitalizing regional communities, thereby forming sustainable regions that simultaneously achieve a decarbonized society, a circular society, and a society in harmony with nature.

The measures have a multilayered structure encompassing collaboration among businesses, local governments, universities, and citizens; digital technologies and human-resource development; and institutional development and industrial deployment in Japan and overseas.

For businesses, the circular economy can become an engine of growth through recycled-material use, environmentally conscious design, sustainable procurement, and long-term product use, creating opportunities to enhance industrial competitiveness and corporate value. At the same time, proper business operations that ensure product safety, hazardous-substance management, and prevention of illegal dumping are required.

For regions and residents, resource collection, food-loss reduction, biomass use, timber use, and reuse can support employment, local industries, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and the maintenance of regional communities. Dialogue with residents and visualization of environmental value can encourage proactive changes in behavior regarding sorting, collection, and use.

In public administration, distributed collection centers, wide-area and centralized treatment, logistics centered on ports, and multilayered systems for processing disaster waste support response capabilities in both normal times and disasters. In Fukushima, initiatives linking return, environmental recovery, industrial creation, and regional revitalization will be promoted.

Internationally, Japan's institutions, technologies, and human-resource development will be deployed to build circular infrastructure overseas. Systems will be established to properly recycle metal resources, including critical minerals, and reuse them in supply chains, while deterring illegal imports and exports.

To optimize resource securing, production, distribution, use, disposal, and recycling across the life cycle, arterial industries such as manufacturing and retail will collaborate with venous industries such as waste treatment and recycling. On the arterial side, environmentally conscious design, sustainable procurement, reduction, reuse, biomass, recycled-material use, and voluntary collection will be strengthened, while CE commerce, including sharing, subscriptions, repair, maintenance, and secondary-market intermediation, will be developed.

On the venous side, scrap yards with inadequate environmental controls will be regulated, and commercial channels leading to improper exports will be cut off. Domestic recycling, expanded collection of recyclable resources, business viability for advanced recycling, and the creation of demand for recycled materials will be promoted, with financial support arranged for building hubs and forming networks. Digital foundations, including resource-circulation information and electronic manifests, will also be developed.

The Fifth Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society was approved by the Cabinet in August 2024 and set out directions for individual materials and products. Its scope includes plastics, waste oil, biomass such as food waste, metals, earth, stone and construction materials, buildings, automobiles, household appliances, textiles, and photovoltaic power-generation equipment.

For solar panels, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry examined legislative proposals, and in April 2026 the Cabinet approved a bill promoting the recycling of solar-cell waste and related measures before submitting it to the 221st National Diet.

In regions, measures will promote food-loss reduction, food recycling, reuse of used products, fertilizer and energy use of food waste, human waste, septic-tank sludge, and sewage sludge, circulation of timber, plastics, and metals, and recycling of disposable diapers. On a wider-area basis, ports will be selected as circular-economy hubs, leveraging concentrations of resource logistics and advanced recycling industries.

Technology development will cover dismantling, crushing and sorting; biomass; recycled-material use; the 3Rs for new products and materials; visualization of environmental impacts; traceability; and robotics. Implementation will be expanded through industry–government–academia partnerships, municipal forums, core personnel, model regions, and ESG disclosure, while the third phase of SIP will conduct research and development on a circular value chain for plastics.

For disaster waste, personnel support and wide-area treatment involving the national government, local governments, research institutions, and private businesses will be coordinated across municipalities, regional blocks, and the nation as a whole. The formulation and revision of effective treatment plans will be encouraged, and in April 2026 the Cabinet approved a bill partially revising the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law and related laws before submitting it to the 221st National Diet.

For proper treatment, the 3Rs plus Renewable will be prioritized before residual waste is processed. Measures will address hazardous waste, illegal dumping, asbestos, POPs, mercury, and PCB, and in April 2026 the Cabinet also approved a PCB-related bill before submitting it to the 221st National Diet. In Fukushima, contaminated soil from decontamination and other materials will undergo interim storage, followed by final disposal outside the prefecture and reuse for reconstruction and recovery based on the basic policy of May 2025 and the roadmap of August 2025.

In international policy, Japan will lead discussions in the G7, G20, OECD, UNEA, ISO, and other forums. Based on the 2023 G7 agreement on CEREP, it will improve the GCP, including corporate-level circularity disclosure, and advance international standardization. In ASEAN, it will support e-waste legislation, capacity building, and corporate collaboration based on ARCPEEC and AJCEI, while deploying waste-management systems, technologies, human resources, and infrastructure to developing countries as an integrated package.