The Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) has sought greater Japanese investment, technology partnerships and business collaboration to strengthen India’s recycling ecosystem, pitching the circular economy as a new frontier in India-Japan economic relations. Welcoming nearly 800 delegates from India, Japan and around 40 countries at the fourth International Business Summit (IBS 2026) in Tokyo recently, MRAI Secretary General Amar Singh said the response had far exceeded expectations, including participation from around 150 members of Japan’s scrap, recycling and metal-trading community.
Mr Singh said Japan was chosen to host IBS 2026 for its strengths in manufacturing, technology, resource efficiency and recycling, and urged Japanese businesses to explore investment opportunities in India. He particularly highlighted the presence of Ajit Kumbhar, IAS, Joint Chief Executive Officer, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and Vaibhav Waghmare, IAS, Special Commissioner, MAITRI, Department of Industries, Government of Maharashtra, saying their participation could help connect Japanese recycling businesses with investment opportunities in Maharashtra. “We’d love to see more Japanese companies set up shop in Maharashtra, bring in technology, create jobs, and be part of India’s growing circular economy,” Mr Singh said.
R Madhu Sudan, IFS, Deputy Chief of Mission, Indian Embassy in Japan was the chief guest for the summit. In his presidential address, MRAI President Sanjay Mehta said India’s rapidly expanding manufacturing, infrastructure, automotive, electronics and renewable-energy sectors would create growing demand for raw materials, making recycling a strategic component of industrial growth. “Japan has the technology. India has the scale,” Mr Mehta said, calling for Japanese technology, engineering and process expertise to be combined with India’s material availability, manufacturing demand, entrepreneurial energy and market opportunity.
Mr Mehta said recycling was no longer simply a waste-management activity but was becoming an essential part of industrial policy, with implications for resource security, manufacturing competitiveness, decarbonisation and resilient supply chains. He pointed out that India imports around 9 million tonnes of ferrous scrap, more than 2 million tonnes of aluminium scrap, nearly half a million tonnes of copper and copper-alloy scrap, and around one million tonnes of lead, zinc and other recyclable metals annually.
At the international platform, Mr Mehta called for greater Japanese participation through technology partnerships, investment, advanced processing, recycling equipment, engineering capabilities, digital traceability and long-term commercial collaborations. He also identified opportunities in critical minerals and battery recycling.
The business case for recycling was highlighted by Mohan Agrawal, Managing Director, CMR Green Technologies, who said the economics of recycled aluminium were increasingly strengthening its position against primary metal. “As carbon costs and recycling requirements rise globally, recycled metal is moving from being an environmental choice to a strategic and commercially attractive raw material,” Mr Agrawal said.
He highlighted that recycled aluminium requires about 5% of the energy used in primary production, generates around five times lower CO₂ emissions and involves about 90% lower capital expenditure intensity. Global recycled aluminium supply is projected to grow at a 5.3% CAGR between CY23 and CY30, faster than the 3.3% growth projected for overall aluminium demand.
Dhawal Shah, Senior Vice-President, MRAI, highlighted the expanding India-Japan economic relationship, noting that around 1,400 Japanese companies and more than 5,000 business entities operate in India, while Japan is India’s fifth-largest source of FDI. Bilateral trade was highlighted at around $27.5 billion, with 11 Japanese industrial townships in India.
Mr Shah also highlighted recent Japanese investments in India’s semiconductor, automobile, R&D and manufacturing sectors, including Tata Electronics-Rohm’s proposed $3-billion semiconductor investment in Assam and Toyota Kirloskar’s third plant in Maharashtra.
Mr Mehta said the same long-term approach that has characterised Japanese investment in India could now be extended to recycling and circularity. “IBS 2026 is a bridge between Japanese technology and Indian opportunity, between manufacturing and recycling, and between today’s linear economy and tomorrow’s circular economy,” he said.
MRAI has more than 1,900 member companies and is seeking to expand the industry’s role beyond traditional scrap trading into technology-led material recovery, processing, critical minerals, batteries and sustainable supply chains. The Tokyo summit, Mr Mehta said, should serve as a platform to forge business partnerships, attract investment, exchange technology and build a stronger India-Japan circular-economy ecosystem.
