Japan’s CE policies largely focus on recycling, energy recovery technologies, economic growth, and innovation. This means that they align with a technocentric vision of circularity which disregards social justice elements and doesn’t seek to reduce major drivers of overconsumption and overproduction. These practices could thus end up replicating and exacerbating current injustices in access to material and energy resources and in the overshoot of planetary boundaries.

On the other hand, the researchers also found that certain stakeholders in Japan have a more transformational approach to circularity. For instance, local governments address issues like resource overproduction and overconsumption, and Japanese NGOs champion climate justice and more transformative circularity options such as reducing, reusing, and repairing. The push for social and environmental considerations in the circular economy often comes from local, bottom-up organizations who usually have more transformative ambitions than high-level policymakers.

At the same time, the research found that NGOs are often excluded from government decision-making meetings at the national level, where private corporations and economists are overrepresented. This power imbalance leads the researchers to raise questions about the lack of inclusivity in the Japanese decision-making process.

The lack of democracy in decision-making replicates current growth-centric policies, which leads to a CE transition that benefits only a few powerful industrial actors and does little to reverse current, unsustainable trends in biodiversity loss, resource overconsumption and overproduction, global poverty, and unequal economic and political relations. Moreover, a growth-focused economy is unlikely to be able to meet climate goals, even if it implements circularity principles. There is no scientific evidence that economic growth can be de-coupled from environmental impacts like carbon emissions quickly enough to avoid climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse.

Looking ahead, the study underscores the importance of democratizing decision-making structures and involving marginalized societal groups in shaping CE policies. The researchers suggest revisiting Japan's holistic ecological philosophy and Buddhist traditions as potential foundations for CE policies. In many Japanese traditions, the ideas of regenerative circles and life in harmony with nature play a key role. These principles could form the basis for an inclusive circular economy emphasising sustainability, reduced consumption, and enhanced well-being. The current trends in Japan support this idea: While Japan has seen a decreasing GDP since 1995, Japanese people report increased happiness and life satisfaction and are moving away from individualism and consumerism in their aspirations and socio-cultural habits.

The authors conclude that in developing its circularity transition, Japan could take heed of these developments and design degrowth-oriented policies that place human and planetary well-being before profits and economic growth. Our research thus opens the door to a more inclusive and resilient implementation of circularity in Japan, aligned with socio-ecological justice and sustainability.

Publication

Arai, R., Calisto Friant, M. & Vermeulen, W.J.V. The Japanese Circular Economy and Sound Material-Cycle Society Policies: Discourse and Policy Analysis. Circ.Econ.Sust. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-023-00298-7