KYOTO—Ultra-low and low temperature freezers once used to store coronavirus vaccines throughout Japan are now chilling out in “second lives” in various industries.

Since Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccines had to be stored at minus 75 degrees and Moderna Inc.’s vaccines had to be kept at minus 20 degrees, the central government bought and distributed more than 20,000 specialized freezers to local governments across the country.

The cost was about 9 billion yen ($60 million). 

However, now that the special vaccination program, which was covered by public funds, has ended, it is up to the local governments to decide what to do with these freezers—which have functional “lifespans” of about 10 years.

The health ministry called on local governments in December to find ways to reuse these ultra-low and low temperature freezers effectively, such as by donating them to hospitals or research institutions.

However, the ministry has not ruled out simply disposing of the units.

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Across Kyoto Prefecture, officials are racking their brains for ways to reuse their specialized freezers.

The prefecture’s 26 municipal governments received a total of 274 ultra-low and low temperature freezers from the central government, and 31 more were distributed to the prefectural government, according to the prefectural government’s Health Affairs Policy Division officials.

The city government of Kyoto received 146 freezers, the most in the prefecture

The city government has since given most of these, free of charge, to medical institutions and universities in the city, including Kyoto University and Kyoto Prefectural University.

“So many organizations wished to take the freezers that we did not have enough to go around,” said an official with the medical sanitation planning division of the Kyoto municipal government, adding that there were about twice as many applicants as there were available freezers.

The Kyoto City Fire Department was given four portable freezers manufactured by Twinbird Corp.

The freezers became available right as the fire department was making preparations to introduce ice vests this summer to prevent heatstroke among firefighters and ambulance attendants. 

“We were so lucky, because the timing fell exactly on when we would have had to purchase freezers for cooling the ice vests,” said Rieko Okuda, an official with the general affairs division of the municipal fire department.

“The ice vests have been received very favorably by firefighters and ambulance squad members on the front lines, who say they help beat the heat.” 

Meanwhile, officials in Nantan city in Kyoto Prefecture said they offered to give their freezers to medical institutions in the city and to other parties, but found no takers.

Instead, they put the freezers up for sale on Mercari, a flea market app that is popular in Japan.

The ultra-low and low temperature freezers were worth several hundreds of thousands of yen per unit, but the city officials took account of the market prices on Mercari and put their three freezers on sale at the exceptionally low price of only 80,000 yen per unit.

All three were bought almost immediately, despite the provision that buyers had to pick them up at city hall.

The city officials said they hope to continue using the Mercari platform to sell disused fixtures and ensure that resources are recycled.

Fukuchiyama city officials sold two of their nine freezers to restaurant operators for 5,000 yen. Three more were disposed of because they had broken down. Their remaining four freezers will be used for vaccine storage including at the city hall and municipal hospital.

Kizugawa city authorities are using three of their eight freezers to temporarily store animal carcasses, including roadkill and exterminated animals and birds, until they can be taken to a disposal site.

The Muko city government is using some freezers to store water samples collected for quality tests at municipal water purification plants, and is using others to refrigerate cold packs at municipal nursery schools to prevent heatstroke.

Miyazu city officials, on the other hand, have disposed of one freezer delivered to them by the central government, even though it was still working.

“We decided that, with the coronavirus pandemic over, we would never need to use the freezer again,” said a Miyazu official.