A Goal of Not Throwing Clothes Away | The National Target of a 25% Reduction by 2030

This is a story about fashion, but we will write about systems rather than runways.

The figure of a 25% reduction

The government has set the following target.

By fiscal 2030, reduce discarded clothing among garments released from households by 25% compared with fiscal 2020

It is not about reducing the “amount released.” It is about reducing the share of released items that are sent to disposal That is the target.

In other words, it is not about telling people to buy less, but about saying, create destinations for items after people let them go That is the point.

Building a 50,000-ton system

More specifically, Establish a system that can produce recycled fibers using 50,000 tons of waste textiles as raw material in fiscal 2030 This has been set as the goal.

Collection alone is not enough. Factories that turn what has been collected back into fiber must actually exist.

A plan called the “Textile Vision”

In November 2021, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry established the Textile Industry Subcommittee under the Industrial Structure Council, and in May 2022, “The Future of the Textile Industry Toward 2030 (Textile Vision)” was compiled.

Five areas are set out here.

• Creation of new business models
• Market creation through technological development
• Acquisition of new markets through overseas expansion
• Cross-cutting: Promotion of sustainability
• Cross-cutting: Acceleration of digitalization

Then In March 2026, the Ministry of the Environment compiled an “Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Fashion.”

Guidelines for information disclosure have also been created

On June 25, 2024, METI “Guidelines for Disclosure of Environmentally Conscious Information in the Textile and Apparel Industry, Version 1” published them.

They define what and how to disclose when using expressions such as “environmentally friendly.” in total.

This has the same structure as the world of cosmetics. The efficacy claims of cosmetics are limited to 56 items In the same way, the scope of what can be said and how evidence should be shown are being defined.

It is being decided somewhere separate from trends

Fashion topics tend to gather around collections and trends.

But in reality, numerical targets for 2030 and rules for information disclosure already exist as official documents.

In the next few years, “where this garment goes” should become one of the criteria for choosing a brand. Not as a matter of preference, but because the system is moving that way.

References: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, “The Future of the Textile Industry Toward 2030 (Textile Vision),” “Interim Summary of Discussions on Promoting Sustainability in the Textile Industry,” and “Guidelines for Disclosure of Environmentally Conscious Information in the Textile and Apparel Industry, Version 1”; Ministry of the Environment, “Formulation of the Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Fashion” and “Current Status Toward Building a Resource Circulation System for Clothing”

—The Value Village Editorial Team