To address Japan's scarcity of natural resources, many communities established voluntary curbside recycling of household materials such glass bottles, steel cans, aluminum cans, and newspaper. The communities usually sold the collected commodities to recyclers for what they considered a reasonable fee. However, in the early 1990s, prices paid for the collected commodities dropped and sometimes became negative, causing communities to have to pay recyclers to take their collected materials. Communities and individuals requested the government take action to address the situation. In response the government developed its first mandatory EPR policy, the June 1995 Law for the Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging. ² The law, which went into effect in 1997, was intended to shift the negative costs for materials collected in community recycling programs from the communities to product producers.

The enactment of the Law for the Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging paved the way for discussion of EPR for other materials. In 1997 and 1998, the Industrial Structure Council of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI),³ the Living Environment Council of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW), and the Environment Agency collaborated to draft the Specified Household Appliances Recycling (SHAR) Law. Representatives of manufacturers, retailers, waste dealers, local governments, and consumer groups also participated in the process. For example, the representatives of the Association of Electrical Home Appliances attended the meetings to ensure the industry's positions were considered. The Japanese Diet passed the SHAR Law in May 1998 with implementation required by 2001.