How to Recycle Electronics in Japan (October 2026)

How to recycle electronics in Japan comes down to what the device is. Air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines need a recycling ticket under the Home Appliance Recycling Law. Computers and phones go through manufacturer or carrier take-back. Small gadgets and batteries go to a collection box. Nothing goes out with normal trash.

Here is the short version of the whole process. Identify the item, check whether it is one of the four mandated appliances, buy a ticket if it is, then bring it to a retailer or book a pickup with a designated contractor. Everything smaller goes in a collection box or to your ward’s recycling centre. Budget roughly 2,000 to 5,000 yen plus transport for the big four, and check your ward office before you pay anything, because fees and accepted items change between municipalities.

I’m writing this for people standing in a flat in Tokyo with a broken laptop and no idea where to put it. The rules are stricter than most countries, but the paperwork is thinner than the reputation suggests.

What You Need

Most of what you need is information rather than equipment. Gather it before you book anything, because a pickup contractor will refuse a job if you are not holding the right ticket for the item in front of them.

• The recycling ticket (家電リサイクル券). Bought from an electronics retailer when you purchase a replacement, or ordered from the Association for Electric Home Appliances and sent by post if you have no replacement to buy.
• Your municipality’s waste guide. Search your ward or city name with 粗大ごみ (bulky waste) or 資源ごみ (recyclable resources) to find the exact collection rules and any size limits on the small appliance box.
• Chargers and cables in a separate bag. Keep them with the device. Loose cables going into a collection box are the most common reason an item gets refused at the counter.
• Packing tape and a marker pen. Retailers often want the power cord taped inside the door of a fridge or washer, and a label with your name and phone number on the outside.
• The model name and serial number. Photographed or written down before you wipe anything. Some retailers ask you to fill these in at the counter.
• Proof of purchase or your ID, if a carrier store needs it for a buy-back trade-in.

For data-bearing devices you also need your account passwords ready. The wipe happens before collection, not at the counter, and it takes longer than most people expect.

Step-by-Step: How to Recycle Electronics in Japan

Work through it in this order. The order matters because the cheapest route is often the one where you hand the old item over at the same counter as a new one.

1. Identify the item and check whether it is one of the four mandated appliances.
2. Try to sell or donate it before you pay anything to get rid of it.
3. Wipe all personal data from any device with a screen or storage.
4. Remove batteries, memory cards and SIM or eSIM cards, and keep them.
5. Buy the ticket or find a collection box, then take the item in or book a pickup.
6. Keep the receipt and the ticket stub.

How to Recycle Electronics in Japan by Device Type

Your device decides the route. Here is the map, and it covers most of what shows up in a Japanese apartment.

Mobile phones and feature phones

You have three reasonable options, and the first two cost you nothing. Carrier stores run trade-in schemes: SoftBank, NTT Docomo and au all take used handsets, usually quoting a discount on a new phone or store credit, and they wipe the device for you. The second option is a second-hand sale through Mercari, Mottainai or a used-goods shop such as Book Off, which works fine for an older phone that still switches on. The third is manufacturer take-back or a certified recycler. Back up, sign out of every account, and remove the SIM before any of them.

Computers, monitors and tablets

Computers fall under the PC recycling law and cannot go in your household bin. The PC recycling mark (パソコンリサイクルマーク), a small mark with an arrow on the body of the machine, tells you the manufacturer accepts take-back, usually free of charge. Monitors often carry the same mark. Beyond that, many municipalities run free collection points for PCs, sometimes a labelled box at the ward office or a supermarket, and used laptop dealers will take a working machine off your hands. For a broken machine with no resale value, the municipal PC collection box is what people on expat forums recommend, because it costs nothing.

Small household electronics

This is the part that surprises people. Under the Small Home Appliance Recycling Act (小型家電リサイクル法), small electrical items such as hair dryers, toasters, rice cookers, kettles and handheld game consoles may legally go in burnable garbage (燃やすごみ) if they fit inside a 50cm box, and every municipality uses that same 50cm standard. Larger small appliances have to go to a collection box instead. Console games, controllers and their cables usually travel with the console. If your city runs a collection box, follow the box rules for size and for what counts as a complete item, because staff turn things away that are half an appliance.

Batteries

Never put a battery in household trash, and never put a lithium battery in the burnable bag. Dry cell batteries (single-use alkaline) often go into the yellow collection box at supermarkets and convenience stores, which takes batteries only. Rechargeable and lithium-ion batteries go through the JBRC, the Japan Portable Rechargeable Battery Recycling Center, and many supermarkets and electronics shops have a marked rechargeable battery box with JBRC on the front. Button cells and coin cells, the ones in a key fob or a hearing aid, must never go in ordinary garbage at all.

The four mandated appliances

Air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators and freezers, and washing machines and dryers are the only items the law names directly, and they can never go out as bulky waste, as in ordinary trash collection or on the street. You get a recycling ticket (家電リサイクル券) in one of two ways. The coupon route: buy a new appliance from a retailer and hand over the old one at the counter, where the retailer attaches the ticket and arranges the haulage. The postal route: order the ticket yourself, write the appliance category and your delivery address on it, and send it with the item to a designated contractor who comes to your door. The statutory minimum recycling rates are set per category, roughly 70 percent for air conditioners, 55 for TVs, 60 for refrigerators and 65 for washing machines.

A CRT television is not a flat panel. If you inherited one, it is heavy and it is treated differently by most collection services, so call your ward office or a recycling contractor before booking anything.

Remove Your Personal Data Before Recycling

Yes, wipe the device first. Retailers and contractors are not required to sanitise storage for you, and a factory reset is not enough on a laptop with an encrypted drive.

• iPhone and iPad: back up to iCloud or a computer, go to Settings, tap your name, then Find My, Erase This Device, then Erase All Content and Settings. Finish by entering your Apple ID password. If Find My is still on for your account, remove the device from Find My before you wipe, or the next person to activate it hits the activation lock.
• Android: Settings, System, Reset, Erase all data, then confirm. On Samsung phones it sits under General Management, Reset Data. Sign out of Google first, and delete your Google account from the device settings menu.
• Windows: back up your files, then Settings, Update and Security, Recovery, Get PC fresh, Reset this PC, Remove everything, Clean drive. On a company laptop, an IT department wipes it and re-enrols it, which is faster than arguing with a contractor.
• Mac: back up, erase the volume with Disk Utility if the machine still works, then Apple menu, System Preferences or System Settings, General, Transfer or Reset, Erase All Content and Settings, and enter your password to confirm.

Afterwards, pull the SIM tray and any microSD card, take out the SIM or eSIM, and destroy any SSD or hard drive yourself if your data is sensitive. A used laptop dealer is obliged to wipe what it resells, but for a machine going to a recycler, a drill through the drive is the honest answer to anyone who asks whether you did it.

Find an Electronics Collection Point Near You

Search your municipality’s name plus 資源ごみ or 小型家電リサイクル法 on your phone, then read the page for your ward. Rules differ by city, and so do the box locations. Most of them sit in an unexpected place: the ward office reception, a supermarket entrance, a convenience store counter, or the lobby of a shopping centre. Retailers are another route, and Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera both take small electronics and batteries, though most branches prefer you to be buying something.

For volume, book a designated-contractor pickup for the mandated appliances, or ask your city about bulky waste (粗大ごみ), which uses a sticker ticket and a scheduled collection window. When you are emptying a whole apartment for a move-out, recycling centres are the practical answer. They are often called a green park, they weigh your vehicle at the gate, and they charge by weight, so two or three trips beats one expensive appliance pickup.

Get a Receipt or Recycling Confirmation

Keep the paperwork. A retailer take-back gives you a receipt with the ticket number on it. A contractor pickup gives you a transfer manifest showing where the item went. A city collection point usually just takes the item, so photograph the box, the label and your emptied car boot before you drive away.

Three reasons to hold onto it: a landlord can ask how you cleared bulky items during move-out, a recycling ticket is your proof of lawful disposal under the Home Appliance Recycling Law, and some collection centres ask for the previous ticket when they are dealing with a business quantity.

Common Mistakes

• Putting a lithium battery in the burnable bag. Punctured or swollen cells start fires in collection trucks, which is why batteries are separated at every stage.
• Recycling a swollen or leaking battery. Tape the terminals, put it in a sealed bag, and take it to a store collection point and tell staff the condition. Never mail a damaged cell.
• Handing over a device you never wiped. A factory reset on a machine you cannot power on does nothing. Physical destruction is the only certainty.
• Using a drop-off point that is not approved. An unofficial box in a car park, or leaving items outside a shop, is illegal dumping. Fines for illegal dumping in Japan are severe, and ward officers do issue them.
• Assuming any store takes any device. Small appliance boxes have size and completeness rules, and many retailers accept only their own brand or only batteries. Check the box label before you load the car.
• Putting a TV, fridge, washer or air conditioner out as bulky waste. Those four are the only electronics the law singles out, and they are the four you will get cited for.

Tips for Reducing Electronic Waste

The cheapest recycling is the one you avoid. Add a battery replacement instead of a new phone when the battery is the problem, keep a laptop until the fan dies rather than on a fixed three-year cycle, and get a cracked screen repaired. Sell anything that works, listing it in Japanese with photographs and the model number, since a described machine sells in a day and a undescribed one sits there for months.

Donate where donation is real: schools, charities and community groups take working laptops and monitors, and the recipient gets something out of it. Reuse the parts. A working monitor, a keyboard or a hard drive from a dead laptop has a second life somewhere, and many used-goods shops and repair cafés in Japan will take them. Before you replace a big appliance, check whether the retailer waives or offsets the recycling fee against the purchase, which several do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Start with the device in front of you. If it is an air conditioner, TV, refrigerator or washing machine, buy a recycling ticket and choose either the retailer counter or a contractor pickup. If it is a computer or phone, wipe it, then look at manufacturer or carrier take-back before you pay anyone. If it is small or it is a battery, find the nearest collection box and read the label. Then check your ward office page, because the collection points and the fees are set locally and they do change.