From 1 July 2020 all Japanese retailers must charge for plastic shopping bags under a ministerial ordinance amending the Containers and Packaging Recycling Act criteria, promulgated on 27 December 2019, with exemptions for thicker reusable bags, marine-biodegradable bags and bags with at least 25 percent biomass content. This is a charge kept by retailers, not a government tax. The Plastic Resource Circulation Act (Act No. 60 of 2021), promulgated on 11 June 2021 and in force from 1 April 2022, requires businesses providing twelve specified single-use items (cutlery, straws, stirrers, hotel amenities, hangers and others) to reduce them through charging, refusal options or alternative materials.
Braskem reports that sugarcane-based bio-PE shopping bags that qualify for the biomass exemption avoided roughly 470,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) over three years, a vendor figure; such bags remain non-biodegradable plastic.
Status as at September 2026: in force. Dates verified against Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)'s plastic shopping bag charge page and the Ministry of the Environment's Plastic Resource Circulation Act page on 23 September 2026.