Japan’s leading flea market website continues to thrive on the idea that one person’s garbage is another person’s treasure.

Masato Yamamoto, an executive officer of e-commerce marketplace operator Mercari Inc., who heads the company’s domestic business, said the needs of consumers have changed drastically over the last 10 years.

But he said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun that Mercari’s success still hinges on its ability to let users sell and buy secondhand goods so easily on their smartphones.

Born in 1979 in Yokohama, Yamamoto completed his master’s course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. He then built his professional career at NTT Docomo Inc., Google’s Japanese arm and Apple Japan Inc.

Yamamoto started working for Merpay Inc., a Mercari-affiliated electronic payment service operator, in 2018. He became CEO of Merpay in January 2022.

He has been a Mercari executive since January 2024.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

***

Question: Publicly available figures show that 23 million people use Mercari every month, leading to a cumulative total of 3 billion items for sale. When Mercari started operations in the 2010s, some said it was no different than the long-established Yahoo! Auction. Why do you think Mercari has gained such widespread acceptance?

Yamamoto: The reason is likely that people now embrace the notion that unwanted articles destined to be discarded could prove to be valuable assets.

Members of Generation Z, born from the mid-1990s through the early 2010s, rarely make bulk purchases. But our statistics reveal they spend considerable sums for “oshikatsu” (to support their favorite characters or idols) and other objects of their desire.

For these purposes, they let go of things they don’t need at the moment. As soon as their preferences change, they relinquish merchandise connected to their previous favorites.

It has become normal for consumers to circulate products quickly rather than keep them for good.

The rise in commodity prices has, of course, contributed to our success. It would be good if wages increase as drastically as commodity prices, but that is not always the case.

What should consumers do under such circumstances? They should part with unnecessary goods to raise funds to buy what they want.

Used articles are available for cheaper prices on our site compared with their brand-new counterparts. I believe this feature has allowed us to increase in popularity so much.

By genre, the most popular category in 2014 consisted of clothes, bags, shoes and other accessories for “women” (accounting for 37 percent).

Toys, video games, books and other merchandise for “entertainment and hobby” activities topped the list in 2023 (at 28 percent).

Software titles for the Game Boy portable console and old Shonen Jump magazines are especially sought-after because they can no longer be bought new. Many people are going further by looking for faded comic books published long ago. They love attributes unique to products from bygone days.

Q: How have people’s tastes for brand-name goods changed?

A: The three best-selling brands in 2013 were: Chanel, Apple and Louis Vuitton. In 2022, the list comprised Uniqlo, Nike and Adidas.

Q: What do those figures indicate?

A: It is not that fewer items from Chanel and other luxury brands are being pitched on the market these days. Rather, the reality is that not-so-expensive products can be in high demand, given the large number of people who would love to buy them.

The rankings changed that way since T-shirts from Uniqlo far outnumber Chanel bags in the market. Although the price per unit is lower for such products, people sell whatever is sellable as long as someone is willing to buy it.

A key factor behind our business expansion lies in our aggressive commitment to enhancing the user-friendliness and content of our service, which aims to seamlessly integrate into daily life and enable users to buy and sell as effortlessly as breathing.

Q: What is the objective of your company’s recent ventures, such as the Merpay smartphone payment service, the Mercoin virtual cryptocurrency and the Mercari Hallo staffing agency for one-time work opportunities?

A: Mercari Hallo saw 5 million users register within three months of its launch in March this year. The number skyrocketed significantly at the start of the service.

Many people seemingly do not want money itself but prefer to buy what they find attractive on Mercari by working a few shifts via Mercari Hallo.

Merpay and Mercoin are similarly used frequently by users who hope to take advantage of funds procured through sales on Mercari. That way, they can buy financial merchandise or other products of their choice.

People from younger generations are highly aware that lifestyles characterized by mass production and mass consumption can lead to global environmental destruction. Consumers are increasingly avoiding products and services with significantly negative effects, no matter how affordable they are.

Reuse means being eco-friendly. Our survey findings show that 36 million people who have never offered any items for sale on Mercari are considering selling something in the future. We believe there is still much room for growth.

(This interview was conducted by Kentaro Uechi, a staff writer of The Asahi Shimbun.)