Zero Waste Life

Using lacquer to reassemble broken vessels by pasting shards together and coating with gold or silver powder, a technique known as kintsugi. In Wester...

Asakusa, Tokyo, is home to many shrines and temples. Visitors often buy "omikuji," which are small pieces of paper with fortunes written on them. Norm...

After leaving his math teaching job Suzuki Yuichi became a doctor, but he has no license. The surgeries he performs require a drill or a screwdriver n...

Cheap plastic umbrellas are all too easily used and thrown away in Japan. And since they're difficult to break down, recycling efforts have stalled. B...

Azuno Tadafumi runs a rather unconventional retail space. It doesn't just carry used tools or furniture, but also salvaged lumber. Many Japanese count...

Komuro Maito has a studio in downtown Tokyo where he works with traditional plant-based dyes. His dyes are made from things that would normally be dis...

Japanese chef Kai Kosei offers dishes featuring "Zako," fish with little or no market value. Either because they're too small or aren't commonly eaten...

For over 40 years Tsukamoto Yoshifusa has used scrap wood from old Japanese houses to make violins. Carefully carving the front and back plates using...

Flowers accompany life's most important moments. But there's a sadness to picked flowers. They color our lives and are all too quickly discarded. Kawa...

Nakahara Keiko lives at the foot of the Yatsugatake Mountains in central Japan. She dyes fabric using nearby plants and makes reusable food wrappers w...

Japanese schoolchildren wear backpacks known as Randoseru. Though sturdily made, after the first 6 years they're no longer used. Nishikawa Masako take...

Working as an architectural designer after college, Kigami Natsuko soon added "jewelry maker" to her job description. Using things like discarded tile...

The Japanese southern island of Okinawa Prefecture, warm all year, this popular tourist spot is home to "Ryukyu Glass," a local industry for over 100...

Kids just love coloring with crayons! But what if a child puts them in their mouth or tries to eat them? Kimura Naoko has come up with a new type of c...