Rebirth and Renewal: A Tale of Cotton and Steel

Hello. I'm looking forward to working with you today.

This agency in Vietnam helps people who want to work overseas.

Most applicants used to choose Japan.

But not anymore.

The firm says fewer and fewer people are opting for the country, instead selecting Taiwan and other places.

Nguyen Trung Thanh worked as a trainee in Japan earlier this year.

But he came back to Vietnam after just three months.

"I think I made the right decision to leave Japan."

Nguyen arrived in the country in late May with a job in construction.

He was hoping to skill up and earn money to send back to his family in Vietnam.

But as the yen tumbled, so did the value of his wages.

At the same time, the cost of living in Japan was rising due to inflation.

Both factors left his family getting much less money than he anticipated.

"The wages I got turned out to be much lower than I had expected because of the sliding value of the yen.

I decided it wasn't worth living in Japan for three years and being away from my wife and children."

In addition to the weakening yen, there have also been a series of scandals involving companies in the internship program mistreating workers.

Last month, 11 Vietnamese said they haven't been paid nearly 200,000 dollars in overtime by the sewing company they've worked for since 2020.

One of them recorded her working hours.

The notes show she only had three days off in May... racking up 155 hours of overtime.

But she says the company didn't pay her what she'd earned.

"I came to Japan to build a better future for my family.

I wanted to one day afford a house for my children.

But My kids are in Vietnam, and I can't do anything for them."

Cases like this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

An organization that supports trainees from other countries says it received more than 23,000 complaints last fiscal year.

Many sought help for mistreatment and unfair pay practices.

Meanwhile, Japan's low birth rate and aging population mean its workforce is rapidly disappearing.

Many businesses are already facing labor shortages.

Some critics of the country's internship program say the foreign trainees are just being used as cheap labor.

An expert says the country should treat the matter as a human rights issue.

"The country has been claiming that the program is an international contribution.

But it has been taking in these foreign trainees because it needs their labor.

People need to think carefully about whether Japan is really a place people will choose to work."

Amid mounting problems and criticisms, an expert panel held its first meeting on Wednesday to review the internship program.

It'll continue to examine issues with the system, and may even consider scrapping it entirely.

Last November, government and business officials gathered in Egypt for the UN COP27 conference to address climate change.

Many of the firms that came to showcase their offerings had products involving hydrogen.

The market for it is currently 90 billion dollars, and it's expected to grow.

"Once properly scaled up it will be 95 percent efficient, cheaper, so cheaper hydrogen."

This Israeli startup attracted particular attention.

It has developed cutting-edge technology that allows it to produce hydrogen inexpensively.

This black electrode made with nickel is the key.

Hydrogen is made by electrifying water.

The process generates both hydrogen and oxygen around the electrodes.

But if they get too close to each other, they could explode.

So a membrane is used in the middle to keep them separate.

It's usually made with a large amount of platinum, making it very expensive.

The firm's new electrode can produce hydrogen without the need for the membrane, reducing costs.

The firm aims by 2030 to produce hydrogen for 1 dollar per kilogram, which is just 10 to 20% of the current average cost.

"The faster we can get to one dollar per kilogram, the faster we can reach parity with existing sources of energy and be able to accelerate the transition of the world's economy to a green economy."

Their technology's potential has been getting noticed.

The firm raised about 100 million dollars, including from a major Japanese trading company and an endowment from Bill Gates.

Hydrogen startups are also showing promise in the automotive industry.

This young Israeli firm has been developing a small engine which can work with hydrogen.

It uses hydrogen for combustion while mitigating the risk of explosion.

A major Japanese auto parts manufacturer has been closely watching the startup.

The company makes parts for gasoline engines.

But as the shift to electric vehicles accelerates, its prospects for growth have dimmed.

Executives decided to invest 10 million dollars in the firm.

They plan to provide their own parts for the company's generators and help them create hydrogen engines.

"We hope to be deeply involved in the process and lead efforts to develop the technology to convert hydrogen into fuel."

Once seen as far off, hydrogen energy systems are edging closer to reality.

With money pouring in, investors are betting they will take the lead in the push for clean power.

In the hands of a skilled craftsman, even a beat-up blade can be brought back to life.

And instead of being incinerated, the filling from old futons is now being given a second chance through recycling.

Today's On-Site report features companies that have found business opportunities centered around making the most from items we already own.

These old futons were all thrown out by their owners.

In September of 2021, Uchihashi Kenshi started a new business called Yuni, that is centered around recycling futons.

While working for his family's bedding manufacturer, he realized most old futons were simply going into the trash.

He estimates that each year, over 100 million futons are thrown away in Japan... and over 98% of them end up being incinerated.

"The materials used for filling are usually in perfectly good condition, with lots of life left in them, so I thought it was a bit odd that they were just going to waste."

The challenge with recycling futons is cost.

While more valuable bedding materials, like goose down, are commonly recycled, futons are primarily made of cotton, polyester, and other cheap materials.

For most bedding manufacturers, this means that it's cheaper to buy these materials new than it is to try and recycle and reuse them.

In order to offset this difference in cost, Uchihashi came up with the idea of charging a recycling fee.

When futons are thrown away, they are usually collected by a municipal waste department and then sent to be incinerated.

Municipal governments usually have to pay an incineration fee of around $4.00 per futon.

Knowing this, Uchihashi's company, Yuni, offers to take them in bulk, for a slightly lower amount than other disposal companies.

A lot of them are surprised that we're able to recycle futons made from cheap materials like cotton or polyester.

Since recycling these materials from used futons was so uncommon, the company developed its own special machinery.

The process begins by cleaning and sterilizing the futons.

After drying, the removal of the stuffing must all be done by hand.

Next, another machine is used to restore the material's fluffiness.

Old stuffing that had been matted and discolored from years of use, comes out looking as soft and clean as ever.

The recycled materials are then used to make new items such as futons, throw pillows, and floor cushions - all of which can be sold for less than items made using brand new materials.

Over the last year, the company has purchased 130,000 used futons for recycling.

It expects to earn a profit of around $8 per futon through sales of products made using materials sourced from them.

"By recycling old futons, a lot of the materials that were being incinerated can be now turned into something useful.

Through sustainable practices like this, I hope that Japan can turn its waste into a vast supply of recycled resources."

These boxes contain beat-up old kitchen knives that have been sent in from all over Japan.

Many of the blades arrive chipped and rusted.

But come out looking as good as new.

The repair service was started by Hoshiba Kentaro, a fourth generation blacksmith whose forge first opened in 1908.

It's located in the town of Noto, which sits on the Sea of Japan.

Since the regional economy was mainly supported by farmers and fisherman, there was always a strong demand for blacksmiths who could make and repair the tools of their trade.

In the 1950s, there were over 40 forges in the area.

However, since then a combination of population decline and an influx of cheap, mass-produced metal goods have taken their toll, and now only the Hoshiba family forge remains.

During that decline, Kentaro's father struggled to keep the business afloat.

"There were a lot of times where things got really hard and I thought we'd have no choice but to go out of business."

When Kentaro took over the business in 2014, he noticed a lot of people from surrounding towns and villages were bringing in their knives for repair -

and wondered if that might be the key to saving his family's business.

"Our industry was continuing to shrink, so I saw this as a chance to keep us afloat by shifting our business model to meet this new type of demand."

In 2018, he opened an e-commerce site that allowed him to offer knife repair services to anyone in Japan.

The work begins by first checking the blade for any distortion.

Rough handling or forcibly cutting through hard objects such as bone can often damage the blade.

After straightening the blade by hand, a machine is then used to grind down areas that have been chipped.

Once the blade's overall shape has been restored...

It goes through a 3-stage hand sharpening process that uses stones with different levels of coarseness.

"You have to make sure to pull the blade towards you.

If you push it the other way and drive the edge into the grinding stone, its surface can cause damage to the blade."

After the process is complete, a simple yet effective sharpness test is carried out.

Additional services such as handle replacement are also available.

By offering such a high level of service, the forge also receives orders from cooks and other professionals that rely on their knives.

Kamono Takayuki works as the head chef at a traditional Japanese inn that has been in business since 1890.

He turned to Kentaro for help when one of his trusty knives became too beat up to ignore.

"Cutting through thick fish bones every day can really do a number on a knife blade.

In cases where the chipping is really severe, only a professional can fix it.

When I got it back I couldn't even tell where the damage had been, it looked brand new!"

Standard repair services start at about $20.

After being in business for 4 years, the forge's reputation has spread, and they now receive as many as 800 orders per month!

Nearly half of the forge's $450,000 in annual sales are from the knife repair service.

Over 80% of the orders come from ordinary people, many of whom are hoping to keep knives that have been in their families for generations in good condition.

"Rather than getting something new, more and more people are showing an interest in getting the most out of what they already have.

With the concept of repair over replace catching on, I think we can expect to see our business continue to grow."