In the charity variety show "Wakkyai no Golden Kamashi Tamashii -CHARITY TELEVISION-" broadcast by BS TV Tokyo on September 25, comedian Wakkyai and SKE48 member Aikawa Honoka visited a secondhand clothing sorting plant, picked garments from discarded clothes to remake, and held a fashion show in Harajuku, Tokyo, with the audience unaware beforehand.

The show visited "Fiber C.D.M. Co., Ltd. Rinku Factory" in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture. The company collects clothes from across Japan and sorts them centrally, with operations covering overseas export and sales at directly operated secondhand stores. The factory receives about 7,000 tons of used clothes a year, sorted piece by piece by skilled workers according to use and material. Of the sorted clothes, only about 2% end up being sold at its domestic directly operated secondhand clothing stores; the rest that still have wearing value are exported overseas, while parts that can no longer be used as clothing are processed into industrial wiping cloths, recycled cotton for automotive heat insulation materials, and raw materials for recycled polyester and wool yarn. Nakai, the company's sales department online business manager, said that sorters must understand clothing and be able to grasp trendy styles and brands.

A set of data cited by the show indicates that about 460,000 tons of clothing discarded by Japanese households each year is not reused or recycled, but incinerated or landfilled. Clothing production and disposal consume large amounts of water and resources and come with carbon dioxide emissions, and in recent years the "mass production, mass consumption, mass disposal" brought by fast fashion has worsened the problem. Seeing piles of discarded clothes at the factory, Wakkyai exclaimed "What a waste," and called on people to "pause before throwing things away; extending the life of clothes can reduce the environmental burden."

The two picked runway outfits from discarded clothes, with three models—Akimoto Leilani, Fukuda Rumika, and Tsukiyama Suzune—trying them on and selecting first. The entire show took 68 days to prepare and involved about 70 staff members, with 16 models ultimately taking to the Harajuku runway. After the show, Wakkyai revealed on the spot that the outfits came from discarded clothes, and most audience members said they had not noticed at all; when asked "Who thinks these clothes are stylish?" many raised their hands. In closing, he said about 90% of discarded clothes can still be worn, and hoped people would re-examine their wardrobes, and if they still throw things away, they should realize "it's not the clothes' fault, but my own for failing to bring them to life." In audience feedback, some said what left the deepest impression was that "the problem isn't the clothes, but your own potential for styling," while others said they wanted to try it themselves after going home.

Source: Wakkyai Holds a Harajuku Fashion Show at a "Mountain of Garbage"! How Did Unknowing Customers React!? (TV Tokyo Plus) | d Menu News · Originally published 2026-09-28