Second-hand clothes finally take off in Japan

A second-hand pop-up store in Tokyo by casual
clothing giant Uniqlo was a first for the Japanese firm, but also a sign that
a local aversion to used garments may finally be fading.

Uniqlo is a major player in an industry blamed for immense carbon emissions
and other pollutants like microplastics.

It has ridden a wave of consumers buying, and throwing away, ever more
clothes.

But in Japan, the world’s third-biggest clothes market, growing awareness
of the sector’s huge environmental impact has yet to spark much interest in
second-hand options.

Uniqlo’s Aya Hanada said the 10-day pop-up in the hip Harajuku district,
where second-hand clothes were a third of their original price — with some
dyed for a “vintage” look — showed attitudes were changing.

“I think the feeling of resistance to used clothing has disappeared in
Japan, mainly among young people,” said the 45-year-old, who works for the
firm’s recycling programme RE.Uniqlo.

The change is in part thanks to the internet, she told AFP outside one of
Uniqlo’s major stores, which allows customers to access items “without having
to go all the way to a second-hand clothing store.”

‘A fashion thing’

There is still a long way to go, however.

In Japan, 34 percent of discarded clothing is recycled or reused, according
to the environment ministry.

But this includes exports to developing countries, where the waste also
often ends up in tips or is incinerated.

Globally, the equivalent of a truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in
landfill every second, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity
focused on eliminating waste and pollution.

JapanConsuming, a market research firm, estimates that the Japanese
second-hand segment represents less than six percent of the $75-billion
market, albeit with strong growth in recent years.

For a long time in Japan, used clothes were a small niche confined to
hipsters, JapanConsuming’s co-founder Michael Causton said.

“Maybe compared to somewhere like France and UK where the ecological,
environmental factors probably came first, in Japan, it was a fashion thing,”
Causton told AFP.

In Japan “there is a very strong concern with hygiene, that is a fixture of
Japanese culture. And that definitely was a barrier for the average consumer,”
he added.

Mercari effect

Alongside Fast Retailing-owned Uniqlo, which touts efforts to transform
second-hand clothes into new products and also donates them to refugees and
others in need, used garment specialist 2nd Street has expanded to 800 stores
across Japan.

There has also been growth in online sales between individuals, driven
mainly by the popular Japanese platform Mercari, where around a third of
transactions by value are fashion items.

Second-hand Japanese clothes are even popular in China and elsewhere,
Causton said, “because people know the Japanese look after their stuff and
what they will send is a high level of quality.”

“I feel like in Japan, used clothes have a high quality… and if it’s not,
it’s clearly stated if there’s any damage,” said Charlotte Xu, 18, an
Australian tourist looking through a thrift store in Harajuku.

“In my home country everything is just in a pile, you have got to search it
for yourself. Whereas here everything is nice and neat, and you can find what
you want.”

Inflation

Rising prices, which after years of deflation have been hitting Japanese
wallets since 2022, have also helped some to drop their opposition to
second-hand.

“We conducted a user survey last year and it showed that clothes was the
number one voted category for purchase on Mercari as a countermeasure against
rising prices,” a Mercari spokesperson said.

But the biggest factor for many is simply whether something looks good or
not.

“I am aware of the sustainable side of things, but I often buy them simply
because they are stylish,” shopper Yamato Ogawa, 28, told AFP at the Uniqlo
pop-up.(AFP)