Foreigners Recycle Japanese Garbage

One of yesterday’s afternoon news programs took a look at foreign businessmen who travel to Japan specfically for the purpose of buying Japanese junk and reselling it in their countries. They showed a man from Afghanistan, two Pakistanis, and a Ngerian guy who were sifting through old appliances at a junk warehouse and finding plenty of stuff that still worked and would never be considered “junk” in their countries. They said that Japanese electronics and machinery have very good reputations in their home countries, and they just couldn’t understand why Japanese people throw away so many things that aren’t even broken. The wasteful ways of the Japanese keep them in business though, so I doubt they complain too much about it.

[Side Note: A clip of the two Pakistanis saying that Chinese-made electronics are unreliable made the final cut of the report....An intentional jab at made-in-China to make the Japanese audience feel some pride in the quality of their nation's products? ]