Nafumi Marita, Mr Kitaoka (IMEX), Christian Wernhart, ACJR President Junkichi Hojo, and three ACJR Members
Christian Wernhart met Japanese cartridge remanufacturers’ association, ACJR, in Okayama earlier this month.
President of ETIRA and CEO of Embatex, Christian Wernhart, travelled to Japan in early November to meet with ACJR board members in order to discuss many issues facing the global cartridge industry and learn about the association.
The topic of clones was high on the meeting’s agenda, despite Chinese patent-infringing new-builds being far less extensive in Japan than in Europe, due to the fact that legal action is taken by the OEMs whenever such products come to the market. Many of the major OEMs are based in Japan and so are very keen to keep clones out of the country, with the single national customs authority actively engaged in seizing infringing products.
While clones are often found to be labelled as ‘remanufactured’, ACJR has had limited cooperation with Japan’s domestic OEMs in fighting clones.
ACJR has 33 remanufacturer members, with industry suppliers being associate members, selling remanufactured cartridges almost exclusively on the domestic market. It, like ETIRA and sister associations UKCRA, FCR, ArtItalia, I-ITC etc., has a code of conduct with which its members must comply; including the prohibition of trading clones.
The association also has several ‘Working Groups’, such as environment, technical and legal, in which all members participate; and since 2011 it has had a collective brand – “E&Q” – which is recognised by the government and sets minimum environmental and quality criteria for firms, with two-thirds of members complying with brand criteria to date.