Pedestrians navigate the vibrant streets of Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Jezael Melgoza/Unsplash)
published on March 24, 2026 – 12:00 AM
Written by Frank Lopez
Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s largest electronics recycler, has announced a collaboration that will expand its presence to Japan.
ERI, headquartered in Fresno, announced on Tuesday a partnership with ITOCHU Corp., a leading global investment conglomerate engaged in domestic trading, importing and exporting.
ERI and ITOCHU are partnering to bring state-of-the-art e-waste recycling and IT asset disposition (ITAD) services to Japan at the first foreign location of ERI.
The venture, a 50-50 partnership between ERI and ITOCHU, will incorporate the best practices from both organizations, including ERI’s innovation-driven circular solutions for responsibly recycling electronics and ITOCHU Group’s networks and its partners in Japan and overseas, according to a news release.
ERI CEO John Shegerian said he is honored to partner with the 150-plus year Japanese brand for this first-of-its-kind venture.
“ITOCHU and ERI working together signals a unique, unprecedented partnership that will bring best sustainability and circularity practices from North America and Asia together as a unified front. Our work will be done in a radically transparent, end-to-end closed loop manner where materials will be kept out of landfills, responsibly recycled, and put back into the circular economy to produce new products in Japan,” he said.
ERI Japan is scheduled to begin doing business later this year.
ERI has eight locations across the nation and has recycled more than 2.5 billion pounds of e-waste in the U.S. since its founding in 2002.
Shegerian said the ideal place to establish a base would be in the Kanto region of the greater Tokyo area, as ITOCHU has a subsidiary called Belong with an operating base there.
But there are still multiple options under consideration, he added. Multiple sites are likely within the next few years. Shegerian said they project starting with 50 employees, eventually scaling up to more than 300 people.
Plans call for opening a new facility for large-scale shredding operations in the months ahead.
Japan’s demand from corporations and municipalities for the safe, secure and appropriate processing, reuse, and recycling of IT equipment is rapidly increasing, Shegerian said.
“We are determined that we can effectively deploy our strengths — such as advanced circular material recovery technologies and high levels of transparent tracking capabilities — while leveraging ITOCHU’s strong local business foundation and customer network. These factors combined make Japan the most suitable destination for ERI’s first expansion outside the United States,” he said.
Shegerian said ITOCHU’s main philosophy of “Sanpo-yoshi, or ‘good for the seller, the buyer, and society’” — lines up with ERI’s mission to protect the planet, people and privacy.
Daisuke Inoue, ITOCHU deputy general manager, said one of the main reasons they were attracted to the collaboration was ERI’s environmental and social values along with their highly integrated, end-to-end business model covering collection, data destruction, shredding, resale and recycling.
“Through this partnership, ITOCHU expects to enhance the overall sophistication of the IT equipment lifecycle in Japan. By combining Belong Inc. — ITOCHU’s wholly owned subsidiary responsible for reuse and distribution — with ERI’s advanced recycling technologies and traceability, we aim to provide a seamless, end-to-end solution from collection to reuse and recycling,” Inoue said.