Business frameworks for sustainable society: a case study on reuse industries in Japan

This paper presents a new perspective on the reuse businesses of independent reuse business companies (IRBCs) in Japan. A majority of previous studies on reuse and remanufacturing have focused on the businesses of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). During the past twenty years, however, in Japan, IRBCs have grown rapidly, especially those that launched new types of secondhand shops. The author proposes that the reuse businesses of IRBCs can provide useful information for academics, OEMs, and policy makers. A key finding is the strategies developed by IRBCs to ensure the volume of used products collected and to stimulate demand for used products. This paper compares the features of IRBC reuse businesses with those of OEMs, and discussed the results and implications of an interview survey with select IRBCs.