静脈産業と産業の静脈部

―自動車リサイクルを事例に―

抄録

In this paper, the author highlighted the importance of waste and recycling businesses of the industry by introducing the concept of “Vein Industry.” In Japan, form 1990s to the time of economical crisis triggered by the Lehman Shock in 2008, the system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been adopted as a government postulate for waste management and recycling policy. Under the EPR, manufacturers began to enter the waste and recycling businesses, which had been operated mostly by the vein industry players. At the same time, barrier to entry to these businesses has eased for new comers from “Artery sector of the Industry.” For example, under the automobile recycling law, the Japanese recycling system has been introduced. Following these moves, in order to correct the conventional viewpoint, in which the manufacturer is divided from the recycler, to new one, in which both parties are involved in coordinated resource recycling, the author advocated an analytical viewpoint of the “Artery sector of the Industry” and “Vein sector of the Industry.”

However, the EPR for a specific product does not always improve economical efficiency. In fact, under the Act on Promotion of Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which enacted in 2013, EPR was forced to withdraw since the law simply encouraged manufacturers going toward large-scale business and mechanization. There was a criticism for high cost operations of the Japanese automotive recycling system.

Meanwhile, processing and recycling of Automobile Shredding Residue (ASR) is secured under the automobile recycling law. For other shredding residues rather than automotive, however, proper processing is not guaranteed. Economic globalization placed significant impact on Japan's used vehicle market and recycling system. In other words, vehicles' wiring harnesses, plastic parts, etc. were exported to China and other overseas countries as “resources” form Japan to avoid high cost processing. However, in 2017, China's Xi Jinping administration, in terms of tightening environmental regulations, ordered an embargo on importation of “resources”. As a consequence, industrial waste of Japan lost an outlet named China and the entire industry is confused. Behind the scenes, there is China's ambition to realize its expansion plan dubbed “Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21^st century Maritime Silk Road,” thereby contending the initiative with Europe, U.S.A. and Japan in the field of the development of next-generation vehicles and infrastructure development towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as a result of China's constant pursue of its policy of increasing national prosperity and military power.