Problems surrounding Reverse Logistics Study in Japan

—Bibliometric Comparison Analysis between Japan and the World—

Abstract

Reverse logistics (RL) is an important component of both corporate strategies and social systems. Corporations are expected to get more deeply involved in RL as their environmental responsibilities increase. In this paper, we review previous studies from Japan and other countries to uncover the fact that research on Japanese reverse logistics (JRL) has been inadequate, quantitatively and qualitatively, when compared with RL studies around the world. Through our study, we also found out some of the reasons behind this deficiency in accumulatedresearch : a practical need appears to be lacking, which stems from Japan′s institutional historical perspectives, the difficulties in conducting seeds study due to its unique legalities related to waste and recycling among other issues. Moreover, we generated suggestions for developing the Japanese RL (JRL) system and related research fields. One such example is to embrace the management concept to the same extent as RL systems in other countries have, as a means of expanding its scope and establishing an international RL system based on Japanese geographical characteristics. We also extracted core publications to be followed in order to build up more efficient RL research that will require the application of social network analysis in Japan for the future.