Japan Vehicle Recycling Fee Estimator
Get a quick estimate of Japan's automobile recycling fee (rikuru ryokin) by vehicle class — kei car, compact, standard, or large/SUV. Includes a breakdown of the fee and how to look up the exact amount.
Estimated recycling fee by vehicle class
| Vehicle class | Estimated fee |
|---|---|
| Kei car (light vehicle) | 7,000 〜 10,000yen |
| Compact car | 9,000 〜 13,000yen |
| Standard car (sedan / minivan) | 11,000 〜 16,000yen |
| Large car / SUV / imported car | 14,000 〜 18,000yen |
These figures are rough estimates per vehicle class. The actual fee is set individually for each model and grade. To check the exact amount, look up your vehicle's model code (from the shaken certificate) on the official Automobile Recycling System website.
Tips
- For the exact amount, look up your vehicle's model code (printed on the shaken certificate) on the official Automobile Recycling System website.
- When buying a used car, the recycling fee has usually already been deposited by the previous owner and is simply passed on as part of the purchase price, so you rarely pay it separately.
- When you ask a scrapper or dealer to permanently deregister your car, check the quote to see whether the recycling fee is listed as a separate line item.
- Cars without air conditioning skip the refrigerant fee, so they tend to cost slightly less than an equivalent car with A/C, even within the same vehicle class.
Frequently asked questions
Side Note — Why Japan created the automobile recycling fee
Japan's automobile recycling fee system began with the Automobile Recycling Law, which took full effect in January 2005. Before then, illegal dumping and improper dismantling of scrapped cars had become a serious social problem, so the law made manufacturers and importers responsible for properly processing shredder dust, airbags, and refrigerant, funded by a deposit that vehicle owners pay in advance.
The shredder dust fee, which makes up most of the total, covers the cost of thermally recycling (using as fuel) the fine debris left over after a car is crushed, rather than sending it to landfill. Once this processing technology became established, the illegal dumping that used to occur on a scale of hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year was nearly eliminated.
Airbags are billed separately because deploying them safely while still installed in the vehicle (rather than after removal) requires specialized equipment and expertise. Cars with more airbags installed tend to have a higher fee for this item.
The information management fee and fund management fee are both fixed at small amounts, in the hundred-yen range, because they are not per-vehicle processing costs but rather the running costs of the electronic system that manages the deposits themselves. The infrastructure cost of centrally tracking tens of millions of vehicles is spread thinly across every car in the system.