From October 2 to 4, 2026, Repair Week Japan 2026, organized by the Japan Sustainable Repair Association, held events at AEON Mall Urawa-Misono in Saitama Prefecture. Masato Sezawa, Creative Director at Artiql, spoke at the October 2 press conference. Over the same three days, AEON Entertainment Co., Ltd. held free screenings at AEON Cinema Urawa-Misono of “The Repair Cafe,” a documentary produced by IDEAS FOR GOOD, the media platform we operate.
About Repair Week Japan 2026
Repair Week Japan 2026 is the Japanese edition of Repair Week, which ReLondon has run in London every March since 2020, according to the Japan Sustainable Repair Association. Led by professional repair and alteration businesses, it aims to widen the option of repairing and continuing to use clothing and household goods instead of throwing them away. It ran from October 2 to 18, with a concentrated three-day event at AEON Mall Urawa-Misono from October 2 to 4.
At the press conference
At the Repair Week Japan 2026 press conference on October 2, Sezawa spoke on behalf of Artiql. He described the initiative as a first step toward a Japanese repair movement in which companies, government and citizens work together, and said that Artiql will continue to share the social and environmental value of repair. He also introduced the right to repair, a growing movement in the United States and the EU that calls for products to be easier to repair, and spoke about the need for a society and products that make repair easier.
Repair experiences at the mall
Over the three days, the mall hosted repair consultations for clothing, shoes, bicycles and jewelry, demonstrations of knife sharpening and bicycle puncture repair, and hands-on workshops including darning (mending holes in fabric with thread), sashiko (traditional Japanese stitching, originally used to reinforce and mend cloth) and shoe and bag care. At the booths where visitors learned care techniques from professionals and tried them by hand, staff and participants chatted as they worked.
Free screenings of “The Repair Cafe”
“The Repair Cafe” was screened five times at AEON Cinema Urawa-Misono, free of charge, alongside “FUTURE KID TAKARA,” a short environmental-education animation about global warming. The screenings drew people involved in the event as well as mall visitors.
About “The Repair Cafe”
Repair Cafés began in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At these community events, people bring broken household appliances, clothing, bicycles and other items and repair them for free together with volunteers who have repair skills. “The Repair Cafe” is a 30-minute documentary that follows this activity and explores the memories attached to objects, the role of local communities, and a consumer society built on disposability. Produced in the Netherlands and Japan in 2024 with cooperation from Repair Café International, it has Japanese, English and Dutch subtitles and is the first documentary produced by IDEAS FOR GOOD.
Since its release in October 2024, the film has been screened more than 300 times in Japan and overseas, including at FixFest in London, reaching over 16,000 viewers (as of August 2026). In Japan, it ranked first in number of screenings in the first-half 2026 ranking of cinemo, a community screening platform. Screenings at companies, schools and community events can also be arranged.
[Reference page] AEON Entertainment Co., Ltd. press release: AEON Entertainment supports Repair Week Japan 2026 with free screenings of “The Repair Cafe” at AEON Cinema Urawa-Misono (in Japanese)
[Reference page] Repair Week Japan 2026 (in Japanese)
[Related article] Artiql’s documentary Repair Cafe reaches 16,000 viewers across Japan
[Related article] Our documentary “The Repair Cafe” ranked first in number of screenings in cinemo’s screening ranking for the first half of 2026
[Related site] Documentary film “The Repair Cafe” (in Japanese)