ERI’s John Shegerian Shares What All Businesses Can Learn From Japanese Culture in Newsweek Opinion Piece

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--John Shegerian, the Chairman and CEO of ERI, the leading international material resource recovery, ITAD and tech reuse and recycling company, has written an opinion editorial piece, published in Newsweek, describing how businesses globally can learn from the worldview of Japanese culture.

Shegerian’s article highlights the Japanese cultural focus on cleanliness, respect and the business philosophy called Sampo-yoshi (where deals should be good for the seller, good for the buyer, and good for society); and explores how these cultural tenets, evident in Japanese lifestyles, business and even sporting events, could be adopted to great benefit by American and other businesses and professionals.

Shegerian also explains why these cultural philosophies were among the alluring aspects that led to ERI doing business in Japan. Earlier this year, ERI announced its launch of ERI Japan, a collaborative partnership with ITOCHU Corporation that is bringing state-of-the-art e-waste recycling and ITAD services to Japan.

“I’m grateful to Newsweek for giving us the platform to share these critical insights we have been learning as we work side-by-side with our colleagues in Japan,” said Shegerian. “ERI Japan is ramping up quickly and we are very proud of our work with ITOCHU – signaling a unique, unprecedented partnership that brings best sustainability and circularity practices from North America and Asia together as a unified front. Our work will be done in a radically transparent, end-to-end closed loop manner where materials will be kept out of landfills, responsibly recycled, and put back into the circular economy to produce new products in Japan.”

Under its Sampo-yoshi corporate philosophy, the ITOCHU Group and ERI are working to strengthen initiatives and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals, while listening closely to the opinions of all stakeholders, including consumers, markets and society.

ERI is the nation’s leading material resource recovery, ITAD and tech reuse and recycling company. ERI is certified at the highest level by all leading environmental and data security oversight organizations to de-manufacture, recycle, and refurbish every type of electronic device in an environmentally responsible manner. It is the first company in its industry to achieve ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications for security and data protection. ERI has the capacity to process more than a billion pounds of electronic waste annually at its eight certified locations, serving every zip code in the United States with international facilities and partners serving over 140 countries. ERI’s mission is to protect people, the planet and privacy. For more information about circularity, ITAD services and e-waste recycling at ERI, call 1-800-ERI-DIRECT or visit https://eridirect.com.