Sun-Star Multi-Purpose Sorting Scissors (S3716317): Japan's 10-in-1 Recycling Scissors

Why These Scissors Exist

Municipalities, not the national government, run household waste under the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act, which also obliges residents to separate it before putting it out. There are 1,718 municipalities plus Tokyo's 23 wards, and each sets its own categories, bags and days. The Containers and Packaging Recycling Act of 1995 split the work three ways (consumers sort, municipalities collect, packaging users pay to recycle), from 1997 for PET bottles and glass and from 2000 for paper and plastic packaging. Behind it is the incinerator: in fiscal 2024, 80.8% of municipal waste was burned directly and the recycling rate was 19.3%, so "burnable" is the category everything else is defined against.

Hence the chores. A PET bottle goes out rinsed, cap and label removed to the plastics stream. Crushing is a city-by-city call: Shibuya says flatten, Kyoto says do not. A paper carton follows the dairy industry's slogan, rinse, open, dry: cut it open with scissors, flatten it, dry it, and drop it in the supermarket collection box, where six one-liter cartons become one toilet roll. Most big cities collect steel and aluminum cans together and sort them by magnet at the plant, but Shizuoka's Shimizu ward and Kamikatsu ask residents to split them. Spray cans are the contested item: Yokohama says use the can up away from fire, no hole needed; Satosho in Okayama still requires one.

In Yokohama a mis-sorted bag stays on the curb with a warning sticker, and repeat offenders are fined 2,000 yen.

Set the ten labels on the Sun-Star card beside that list and they read like a checklist of it: carton, bottle, cap, lid, film, sticker, spray can, can, ring, tape. An observation, not a claim about Sun-Star's intent; the maker publishes no development story.

What the Sun-Star Sorting Scissors Are

The maker is Sun-Star Stationery Co., Ltd. of Taito-ku, Tokyo, founded in 1940 and now in the Bandai Namco group. It is the only garbage-sorting tool in Sun-Star's lineup; a search of the maker's site for 分別 turns up nothing else. Product code S3716317, JAN 4901770010366. Sun-Star gives it no official English name; the banner on its product page reads "MULTI FUNCTION SCISSORS", and wafuu lists it as Multi-Purpose Sorting Scissors. Marketplace listings for the same JAN call it universal separation, all-purpose sorting or multi-purpose recycling scissors: one product, one code.

Specs, from Sun-Star's product page and wafuu's listing: blade 60mm, body W60 x H170 x D8mm, 56g, stainless steel blade, R-ABS handle (Sun-Star's own notation for the plastic), PP safety cap, made in Japan. Blue handles, silver blade; Sun-Star lists one version and no color variants. The packaging is marked PAT; Sun-Star publishes no patent number. Sun-Star's Japanese list price is 1,320 yen including tax; wafuu's 1,050 yen base price excludes Japanese tax and is shown in your local currency on the product page, a different basis, not a discount.

10 functions Made in Japan Ships from Japan

Sun-Star Stationery

Sun-Star Multi-Purpose Sorting Scissors (S3716317)

Ten sorting functions by the maker's count on a 60mm stainless blade: bent tip, spatula, hook, hole A for emptied aerosols, weak magnet for steel vs aluminum. 56g, PP cap. 1,050 JPY.

1,050 JPY · base price, shown in your currency on the product page · JAN 4901770010366

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The 10 Functions, One by One

Sun-Star prints ten labels on the card in a fixed order, and the count is the maker's: two of the ten, the tape-resistant blade and the magnet, are properties of the blade rather than separate tools.

1Cutting Open Milk and Juice Cartons

牛乳パック切り · Gyunyu Pakku Kiri

A rinsed carton has to be cut open and laid flat to dry. With straight scissors your hand runs into the carton as the cut advances; this blade is bent at the tip, so the hand stays clear and the cut keeps going. The packaging extends the same geometry to cardboard, PET bottles and other sheet-like items.

2Cutting PET Bottles

ペットボトル切り · Petto Botoru Kiri

The pointed tip pierces the bottle wall, then the blade cuts; starting the cut is the hard part of a PET bottle, and the point does that job. City rules ask for a rinsed bottle with the cap and label off, not a cut-up one, so this function is for crafts, cleaning or volume reduction where rules allow.

3Levering Off Pour-Spout Caps

注ぎ口キャップはずし · Sosogiguchi Kyappu Hazushi

Many Japanese cartons and bottles carry a plastic pour spout that goes to plastics. A hook in the middle of the blade slips under the collar and levers it off the neck.

4Removing Inner Lids With the Spatula Tip

内フタはずし · Uchibuta Hazushi

Some bottles carry a plastic stopper under the cap; it goes out with the caps and labels, apart from the bottle. The very end of the blade is shaped as a small spatula, a hera. Slip it under the stopper's rim and lift.

5Slitting and Peeling Bottle Label Film

フィルムはがし · Firumu Hagashi

The blade tip slits the shrink label down the side so it peels off in one strip. In Japan the label goes to plastics, so this is a step for every bottle.

6Scraping Off Stickers and Labels

シールはがし · Shiiru Hagashi

Blades closed, the flat face of the tip goes under the edge of a price sticker or label and works it off the container. No separate scraper needed.

7Venting an Emptied Aerosol Can

ガス抜き · Gasu Nuki

Two steps, in the packaging's order. First, after the can is used up, press its nozzle onto the hole marked A to release residual gas, outdoors, away from any flame, in a well-ventilated place; shake the can, and if it rattles or sloshes keep venting until silent. Second, and only then, the hook claw in the blade's notch punches a hole. The hole is for municipalities that ask for one, and many do not; the rules, Japanese and overseas, are under Safety.

8Telling Steel Cans From Aluminum Cans

缶わけ アルミ/スチール · Kan Wake

The whole blade carries a weak magnetic force. Touch the flat of the blade to the can: a steel can sticks lightly, an aluminum can does not. That is the entire function, a sorting aid, not a can cutter. It matters where the collection point separates the two metals, or at scrap yards that buy aluminum by weight.

9Removing the Ring Left on a Bottle Neck

リングはずし · Ringu Hazushi

Unscrew a PET bottle cap and a plastic ring stays on the neck. Snip through it once with the fine tip and it comes away. The ring meant here is the bottle-neck ring, not the pull tab on a drink can.

10Blades That Resist Tape

刃にテープがつきにくい · Ha ni Teepu ga Tsukinikui

Dimple processing on the blade faces means packing tape and adhesive are less likely to stick, so taped cardboard can be cut down without gumming up the blades. Less likely, not never: the packaging word is tsukinikui.

Design Details That Make It Work

Almost everything rests on four features of the blade: a cranked tip that keeps the hand clear, dimpled faces against tape, weak magnetism across the whole blade rather than at the tip, and a point sharp enough, in the packaging's words, to get into small gaps. Add the spatula at the tip, the hook claw and hole A in the notch, and a PP safety cap over the point.

The scissors themselves get sorted at the end of their life. The packaging says pry the hinge with a screwdriver, release the hook, and the stainless blade parts from the plastic handle. Wrap the metal in cloth and keep fingers off the edge; once apart, it does not go back together, and each part then goes out under the local metal and plastic rules.

What It Is Not For

A 60mm blade is short: not a box-breaking shear, not a heavy-duty cutter, not a kitchen shear. The handles are plastic, and a recurring complaint in Amazon Japan reviews is that the finger holes are small.

It is not a can cutter; the only can-related functions are the magnet test and venting an emptied aerosol. It carries no bottle opener, screwdriver or wire stripper either; nothing beyond the ten packaging labels is on the list, so a pocket multi-tool it is not. The magnet is weak on purpose: it tells you what a can is made of and will not lift one. Hole A is for a can already used up, never for draining one that is not, and the claw is used only where local rules ask for a hole. Even there it is not a substitute for what the municipality names: Nagano City and Takasago, which still require a hole in 2026, point residents to purpose-built puncturing tools. Paint and lacquer sprays go to hazardous-waste collection in places such as Germany and British Columbia, whatever tool is at hand.

The tip is sharp and pointed by design, and the packaging makes a point of the safety cap for storage, so keep the cap on whenever the scissors are not in use and keep them out of children's reach.

Safety: Venting Instructions and Local Rules

Sun-Star's first three steps are the same three Japan's Ministry of the Environment asks municipalities to teach: use the product up, shake the can to check nothing is left, and release the rest outdoors, away from fire, in a well-ventilated place. Why the hole exists at all: cans with gas left inside were setting fire to collection trucks and crushing plants. The ministry has advised against resident puncturing since at least 2015, forcefully since December 2018, yet its 2019 survey still found 57.4% of municipalities asking for one, and Mitsuke, Nagano City and Takasago still did in 2026. The claw is not obsolete; it is local.

Compared With Other Scissors on wafuu

Sun-Star sells no other sorting tool, so every alternative comes from another maker and none is built around garbage sorting; each does one thing the Sun-Star does not, per wafuu's product pages.

wafuu base prices in JPY on 5 September 2026. The product pages show the price in your local currency (about US$7 for the Sun-Star pair), so check each page for today's price.

In short: KOKUYO and Kimura Hamono for parcels, Kutsuwa for a Seki-made opener blade, ENGINEER for hard or fibrous materials a 60mm blade is not meant for. The OLFA, Debika, Plus and KOKUYO Saxa pairs are in the scissors and cutters collection.

Box opening

KOKUYO

KOKUYO 2-Way Scissors with Box Opener, Glueless Blade (P412LM)

Scissors plus a Hako-Ake mode that opens cardboard boxes with the blades closed. Glueless stainless blade, 65mm long, 1.5mm thick; ABS handle, PP cap. 1,100 JPY.

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2-way cutter

KOKUYO

KOKUYO 2Way Cutter Scissors, Titanium Blade (AMHASA-T420D)

A slide switch moves between unpacking-cutter mode and scissors mode one-handed. Titanium blade, no cap needed, strap hole; designed for portability. 1,800 JPY.

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Seki-made

Kutsuwa

Kutsuwa Double Blade Scissors (SS119BK, Black)

Made by artisans in Seki City, Gifu. A long single opener blade opens packages without opening the scissors; straight and curved blades, 65mm. 2,300 JPY.

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Parcel opening

Kimura Hamono Seisakusho

Kimura Hamono Seisakusho Content Safe Package Cutter Scissors

Cutter mode for controlled slits and a guarded-tip scissor mode so parcel contents stay intact; also scores fold lines. Black or Cafe Brown. 1,900 JPY.

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Heavy materials

ENGINEER

ENGINEER PH-55 Multi-Function 160mm Compact Scissors

Four blades, including a micro-serrated edge for hard ultra-fine fibers, on the 160mm compact model. Workshop, outdoor, DIY and kitchen cutting. 2,400 JPY.

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From the same maker

Sun-Star Stationery

Sun-Star Kadomaru Pro Corner Cutter (S4765036)

Not scissors: Sun-Star's corner cutter rounds paper and laminated film corners at 3mm, 5mm or 8mm radius in one press. W78 x H50 x D94mm; series since 1996. 1,450 JPY.

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Who Should Buy It (and Who Should Not)

Buying From Japan

The base price on wafuu is 1,050 yen, which the product page shows in your local currency (about US$7 in September 2026), shipped worldwide from Japan. Identify it by code S3716317 or JAN 4901770010366.

It ships in Sun-Star's retail packaging with the safety cap fitted, and household scissors are not on Japan Post's prohibited-items list. If it later travels with you, pack it in checked luggage with the cap on: the 60mm blade sits right at the 6cm limit that UK, EU and Canadian cabin rules use, and the tip is pointed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict

If your week includes cutting cartons open, pulling caps and rings off bottles and telling one can from another, these scissors put those jobs on a single 60mm blade for about 1,050 yen (US$7 or so), shipped from Japan. If your week is parcels and heavy cutting, buy a KOKUYO, Kutsuwa or Kimura Hamono pair instead. Check your municipality's aerosol rule before touching hole A or the claw, then order from the product page; product code S3716317 or JAN 4901770010366 confirms the right one.

Sun-Star Multi-Purpose Sorting Scissors (S3716317)
1,050 JPY base price (about US$7) · ships worldwide from Japan

View on wafuu