On weekday evenings in Japan’s Yokohama, commuters filing out of Kanazawa-Bunko Station may soon pause at new vending machines that offer an unusual deal: bags of pastries and bread, marked down by about a third, left over from bakeries that have already shut for the night.
The “SDGs locker”, launched on Thursday at the station, is an unmanned unit that stores surplus bread and confectionery still within their best-before dates but unsellable once shops close for the day. Bakeries load leftover products into the machine each evening, offering them at around 30 per cent off until the last train. Payments are fully cashless, using transport e-money, credit cards or QR codes.
Despite improvements over the past two decades, Japan discards millions of tonnes of edible food each year – loss driven by tight retail standards, conservative stock rules and consumer expectations of almost perfect freshness.
The country generated an estimated 4.64 million tonnes of food loss and waste in fiscal 2023, according to the environment ministry. That is down sharply from the roughly 9.8 million tonnes recorded in 2000, thanks partly to reforms in retail logistics, changes in delivery deadlines and efforts by major food companies to pare back excess stock.
Yet the remaining waste is substantial. Government data show that households and businesses each account for roughly half of the total. Restaurants and convenience stores constantly refresh shelves to meet expectations of variety; supermarkets routinely discard blemished or near-date products; and households often dispose of leftovers and unused ingredients.
Japan’s food waste problem is also closely tied to climate targets. The government estimates that the disposal of unused food produces more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Officials have warned that the country cannot meet its environmental goals unless food waste falls significantly further.
How the system works
A SDGs locker in Yokohama City Hall, Japan. Image: Yokohama SDGs Design Center
The SDGs locker system, supplied by Yokohama-based Alpha Locker System Co, aims to reduce barriers for retailers and facility operators.
Shops can continue selling food after closing time without staffing costs, while stations, offices and shopping centres hosting the lockers receive rental income and do not handle cash. The company digitally monitors inventory and handles cashless payments.
Keikyu Corp, which operates the station, said the locker is expected to cut waste by about 1.5 tonnes annually at the site. The company sees the pilot as a way to test whether railway stations, highly trafficked, centrally located spaces, can become distribution points for food that would otherwise be thrown away.
Seven lockers already operating in Yokohama – the first major city in Japan to introduce the machines under a municipal programme – are each projected to cut more than 12 tonnes of food waste annually.
Officials say visibility and daily foot traffic are key, with stations offering an opportunity to reach commuters who may not normally engage with surplus-food apps or community redistribution schemes.
“We decided to handle food loss reduction in order to target Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) goals that are familiar to citizens … Through this initiative, we are working to reduce food loss and CO2 emissions,” Yokohama city said in a press release to launch the project.
The cultural challenge
More Japanese consumers have become conscious of sustainability following price rises, heightened media attention and the broader visibility of climate issues. That awareness has fuelled interest in discounted surplus-food apps, “take-home” campaigns at restaurants and grocery chains experimenting with dynamic pricing for near-expiry items.
Still, behavioural change has been slow. Consumer surveys show that many people continue to over-purchase or discard products out of caution once they approach their best-before date, despite government efforts to clarify that such labels reflect quality, not safety.
Retailers face their own pressures. Japan’s long-standing ‘1/3 rule’ in retail logistics, which dictates when products must be shipped and sold, has historically encouraged early disposal of near-date items. Although some sectors have relaxed logistics standards, others remain cautious about straying from convention for fear of quality complaints or reputational risk.
Government response
Japan enacted the Act on Promotion of Food Loss and Waste Reduction in 2019, requiring national and local governments to coordinate with businesses and consumers on reduction measures. Municipalities have since launched campaigns ranging from awareness drives to school-based education programmes and public–private recycling initiatives.
Local governments such as Yokohama are increasingly turning to pilot technologies. Automated units like the SDGs locker are seen as relatively low-cost tools that can be deployed in dense urban areas, where access to restaurants and convenience stores is abundant but surplus food also accumulates rapidly.
Yuka Sasaki, manager of the SDGs Future City Promotion Division of Yokohama City, told local media that the lockers have gained so much attention that the city received many inquiries from companies and local governments around Japan.
Cities such as Fukuoka and Sapporo, for instance, have introduced or studied similar food-loss reduction vending lockers, and others are exploring circular-economy applications.
Japan has set a target of halving household food waste by 2030 compared with 2000 levels – a benchmark that remains out of reach without further changes in everyday behaviour.
