Japan Scrap Metal Prices – Copper, Steel, Aluminium

Get Japanese scrap metal buying prices in one normalised table: Tokyo Steel's ferrous scrap purchase prices (per plant, JPY/tonne, from its official price sheets) plus copper, insulated wire, brass, bronze, aluminium, stainless, lead and zinc prices published by six Japanese scrap dealers (JPY/kg). Every row carries a normalised item code, the original Japanese item name, price with unit, the date the price applies to, and the change since your previous run. Built for scrap exporters, brokers and traders who watch the Japanese domestic price level (Japan is a major exporter of copper scrap). No coding needed.

What data can you extract?

Field	Description	Example
dealer / dealerName / dealerNameEn	Source ID and company name	ohata / 大畑商事 / Ohata Shoji
location	Plant or yard the price applies to (Tokyo Steel: one row per plant/satellite)	田原工場
deliveryMode	Tokyo Steel only: sea+land or land	sea+land
itemCode / itemNameEn / metalGroup	Normalised item shared across dealers (null if not mapped yet)	copper_bare_bright_wire
itemNameJa / gradeJa	Item name and sub-grade exactly as the dealer writes it	ピカ線(特一号銅線・ピカ銅・1号銅)
price / priceLow / priceHigh / priceQualifier	Price, or a range, or a "from" price	2380
unit / pricePerKg	JPY/kg, JPY/t or JPY/unit; kg-normalised price for comparisons	JPY/kg / 2380
taxIncluded	true when the page says prices include consumption tax, null when it does not say	true
priceDate / priceDateSource	Date the price applies to and where that date came from	2026-10-10 / page
previousPrice / change / changePct / changeType	Change vs your previous run (or vs the previous Tokyo Steel sheet)	2330 / 50 / 2.15 / up
publisherChange	Tokyo Steel only: the change printed on the sheet itself (価格改定幅)	1000
dealerChangeFlag	up / down when the dealer marks the item on its page	up
sourceUrl / sourceType	Page or PDF the row was read from	https://www.ohata.org/kakaku.html

The default input returns the first 100 rows (maxItems: 100); set maxItems to 3000 for the full table. A full run of all seven sources returns about 480 rows (measured 2026-10-10: Tokyo Steel 84, Ohata 149 unique items, Hiranoya 139, Kimura 12, Yagi 33, Kouchi 32, Kousyo 31). Items a dealer lists without a price ("お問合せ下さい", "相談", "ASK") are not returned; their count is in RUN_REPORT.

Data sources (measured 2026-10-10)

dealer	Page(s)	Update pattern seen	Price unit / tax
tokyo-steel	tokyosteel.co.jp/scrapprice/ → dated PDF price sheets (about 75 listed, back to Jan 2025)	Revised irregularly, about 40 sheets in 2026 so far	JPY/t (not printed on the sheet; Tokyo Steel quotes per tonne); tax not stated
ohata	ohata.org/kakaku.html	Dated daily ("2026年10月10日 午前8時"), same price at all yards	JPY/kg, tax included
hiranoya	hiranoyasan.com/all-items/	Dated daily ("2026年10月10日午前9:00 更新")	JPY/kg (some per piece), tax included
kimura	kimura-metal.co.jp/price.html	No date on the page; HTTP Last-Modified used (2026-10-07). Most items are shown as "please call"	JPY/kg, tax included
yagi	yagimetal.com/works/service/	Dated ("2026年10月6日時点")	JPY/kg, tax included
kouchi	kouchi-metal.jp nonferrous / ferrous / misc	Per-page "最終更新日" (2026/9/16 – 2026/10/3)	JPY/kg, tax included
kousyo	kousyo-boueki.jp nonferrous / misc	Per-page "最終更新日" (2026/9/22 – 2026/10/6)	JPY/kg, tax included

Dealers update on their own schedules, so always read priceDate. Prices are the dealers' published reference prices for material delivered to their yards; the final price depends on quality and quantity.

Why scrape Japanese scrap metal prices?

1. Export sourcing — see what Japanese yards are paying for No.1 bare bright copper wire, mixed copper or insulated wire today, and compare with LME / Shanghai to judge whether buying from Japan pays.
2. Ferrous market tracking — Tokyo Steel's purchase price per plant is a widely watched signal for the Japanese steel scrap market; tokyoSteelSheets returns its revision history in one run.
3. Dealer comparison — one itemCode (e.g. copper_komido) lines up the same grade across dealers, in the same unit.
4. Price alerts — schedule the Actor daily with mode: "changes" and get only the prices that moved, ready for Slack, email or a spreadsheet.
5. AI agents / RAG — give an LLM agent current Japanese scrap prices through the Apify MCP server, with English item names and explicit units and dates it can reason over.

How to use it (no coding)

1. Click Try for free.
2. Keep all dealers selected, or pick only the ones you need (e.g. tokyo-steel for steel scrap).
3. Optional: choose Metal groups (e.g. copper + wire) or Item codes.
4. Choose Output mode: all for the full table, changes for only new or moved prices.
5. Click Start, then export the results as JSON, CSV or Excel.
6. To monitor, create a Schedule (e.g. every weekday 10:00 JST) with mode: "changes".

Input example

{
  "dealers": ["tokyo-steel", "ohata", "hiranoya", "kimura", "yagi", "kouchi", "kousyo"],
  "metalGroups": [],
  "itemCodes": [],
  "includeUnmapped": true,
  "mode": "all",
  "stateStoreName": "japan-scrap-metal-prices-state",
  "tokyoSteelSheets": 1,
  "maxItems": 3000
}

Copper-only daily watch: {"metalGroups": ["copper", "wire"], "includeUnmapped": false, "mode": "changes", "stateStoreName": "copper-watch"}. Tokyo Steel history: {"dealers": ["tokyo-steel"], "tokyoSteelSheets": 20} (about 84 rows per sheet).

Output example

{
  "dealer": "ohata",
  "dealerName": "大畑商事",
  "dealerNameEn": "Ohata Shoji",
  "dealerRegion": "Osaka / Chiba / Gunma",
  "location": "All yards (same price)",
  "deliveryMode": null,
  "itemCode": "copper_bare_bright_wire",
  "itemNameEn": "No.1 bare bright copper wire (Pika-sen, No.1 copper wire, ≥1.3 mm, insulation fully removed)",
  "metalGroup": "copper",
  "itemNameJa": "ピカ線(特一号銅線・ピカ銅・1号銅)",
  "gradeJa": null,
  "dealerCategoryJa": "銅・雑電線",
  "price": 2380,
  "priceLow": null,
  "priceHigh": null,
  "priceQualifier": null,
  "priceText": "2380",
  "currency": "JPY",
  "unit": "JPY/kg",
  "pricePerKg": 2380,
  "taxIncluded": true,
  "priceDate": "2026-10-10",
  "priceDateText": "2026年10月10日 午前8時",
  "priceDateSource": "page",
  "publisherChange": null,
  "dealerChangeFlag": "up",
  "sheetNo": null,
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.ohata.org/kakaku.html",
  "sourceType": "html",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-10T11:51:21.749Z",
  "previousPrice": 2330,
  "previousPriceDate": "2026-10-09",
  "change": 50,
  "changePct": 2.15,
  "changeType": "up",
  "changeBasis": "previous-run"
}

A Tokyo Steel row looks the same with dealer: "tokyo-steel", location: "田原工場", deliveryMode: "sea+land", itemCode: "ferrous_electric_special_a", itemNameJa: "電特A", price: 55000, unit: "JPY/t", pricePerKg: 55, taxIncluded: null, priceDateSource: "pdf-effective-date", publisherChange: 1000 and sheetNo: "No. 26-035".

Field notes

• changeType is new for every row on the first run with a given stateStoreName (changeBasis: "first-run-baseline"); later runs compare with the previous run (previous-run). Older Tokyo Steel sheets fetched with tokyoSteelSheets > 1 are compared with the sheet before them (previous-sheet-in-this-run). Computed Tokyo Steel changes matched the sheet's own 価格改定幅 table on all 11 consecutive sheets checked.
• itemCode is filled only when that exact Japanese item name has been verified on that dealer's page; nothing is guessed. Dealer-specific items (e.g. ギロチン材A, circuit boards, catalysts) keep itemCode: null and are still returned unless includeUnmapped is false.
• unit: "JPY/t" for Tokyo Steel is not printed on the PDF; Tokyo Steel quotes its scrap purchase prices per tonne.
• Kimura's page has no date, so its priceDate is the HTTP Last-Modified date of the page (priceDateSource: "http-last-modified").

Normalised item codes

itemCode	Group	English name	Dealers mapped
copper_bare_bright_wire	copper	No.1 bare bright copper wire (Pika-sen, No.1 copper wire, ≥1.3 mm, insulation fully removed)	ohata, hiranoya, kimura, yagi, kouchi, kousyo
copper_jodo_clean	copper	Upper-grade clean copper pipe/sheet (Jo-do)	kimura, yagi
copper_namido	copper	Clean copper scrap without attachments (Nami-do)	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kimura
copper_komido	copper	Mixed copper with attachments/oxidation (Komi-do, "No.2 copper")	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kouchi, kimura, kousyo
copper_ac_pipe_insulated	copper	Copper A/C pipe with insulation still attached	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kouchi, kousyo
copper_burnt	copper	Burnt copper (Yaki-do)	kouchi
copper_heat_exchanger_red	copper	Copper water-heater heat exchanger, red (Aka-gama)	ohata, hiranoya
copper_heat_exchanger_white	copper	Zinc-plated copper water-heater heat exchanger, white (Shiro-gama)	ohata, hiranoya
cupronickel	copper	Cupronickel (white copper)	kouchi
phosphor_bronze	brass_bronze	Phosphor bronze	ohata
wire_cu80	wire	Insulated copper wire, ~80% copper recovery	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kousyo
wire_cu70	wire	Insulated copper wire, ~70% copper recovery	hiranoya, yagi
wire_cu65	wire	Insulated copper wire, ~65% copper recovery	ohata
wire_cu60	wire	Insulated copper wire, ~60% copper recovery	hiranoya, yagi, kousyo
wire_cu50	wire	Insulated copper wire, ~50% copper recovery	hiranoya, yagi
wire_va_vvf	wire	VA / VVF (F-cable) building wire	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kouchi, kimura, kousyo
wire_appliance_cord	wire	Appliance power cords	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kousyo
wire_auto_harness	wire	Automotive wire harness	ohata, hiranoya, kousyo
wire_coax	wire	Coaxial / TV antenna cable	hiranoya, yagi
brass_mixed	brass_bronze	Mixed yellow brass (Komi-shinchu)	ohata, hiranoya, kimura, yagi, kouchi
brass_clean	brass_bronze	Clean brass without attachments	kousyo
brass_rod_ends	brass_bronze	Brass rod ends (Bo-koro)	yagi
brass_coins	brass_bronze	Brass coins / medals	ohata, hiranoya
gunmetal_clean	brass_bronze	Gunmetal / bronze castings, clean (Hogane)	ohata, hiranoya, kimura, yagi
gunmetal_valves	brass_bronze	Mixed gunmetal / valve bronze (Komi-hogane)	ohata, hiranoya, kimura
gunmetal_water_meters	brass_bronze	Bronze water meters, not dismantled	ohata, hiranoya
nickel_silver	brass_bronze	Nickel silver (Yohaku)	ohata, hiranoya
aluminium_sash	aluminium	Aluminium window sash (dealer standard grade)	hiranoya, yagi, kouchi, kousyo
aluminium_sash_clean	aluminium	Aluminium window sash, no attachments	ohata
aluminium_sash_with_attachments	aluminium	Aluminium window sash with attachments/screws	ohata, yagi
aluminium_cast	aluminium	Cast aluminium (Aluminium gara: machine/auto parts)	ohata, hiranoya, kousyo
aluminium_ubc	aluminium	Aluminium beverage cans (UBC)	ohata, hiranoya, kouchi, kousyo
aluminium_wheels	aluminium	Aluminium car wheels (no tyres)	ohata, hiranoya, kouchi, kousyo
aluminium_litho_sheet	aluminium	Aluminium litho / printing plates	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
aluminium_heat_sink	aluminium	Aluminium heat sinks	ohata, hiranoya
aluminium_new_scrap	aluminium	New aluminium production scrap (Shin-kuzu)	yagi
stainless_304	stainless	Stainless steel SUS304 (18-8)	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kousyo
stainless_304_turnings	stainless	Stainless SUS304 turnings	yagi
stainless_301	stainless	Stainless steel SUS301	ohata
stainless_309	stainless	Stainless steel SUS309	ohata
stainless_310	stainless	Stainless steel SUS310	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
stainless_316	stainless	Stainless steel SUS316	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
stainless_400_series	stainless	Stainless steel 400 series (magnetic)	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
lead_pipe_sheet	lead_zinc	Lead pipe / sheet, clean	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
lead_wheel_weights	lead_zinc	Lead wheel balance weights, clean	ohata, hiranoya
lead_type_metal	lead_zinc	Lead type metal	ohata, hiranoya
lead_battery_auto	lead_zinc	Automotive lead-acid batteries	ohata, hiranoya
lead_battery_sealed	lead_zinc	Sealed lead-acid batteries	ohata, hiranoya
lead_battery_forklift	lead_zinc	Forklift lead-acid batteries	ohata, hiranoya
lead_battery_industrial	lead_zinc	Industrial lead-acid batteries	ohata, hiranoya
zinc_clean	lead_zinc	Zinc, clean	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
zinc_boiler	lead_zinc	Boiler zinc anodes	ohata, hiranoya
tin_pure	lead_zinc	Pure tin	ohata, hiranoya
nickel_pure	other_metals	Pure nickel	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
tungsten_carbide	other_metals	Tungsten carbide (Cho-ko)	ohata, hiranoya, yagi
high_speed_steel	other_metals	High-speed steel (HSS)	ohata, hiranoya
titanium_pure	other_metals	Pure titanium	ohata, hiranoya
molybdenum	other_metals	Molybdenum	ohata, hiranoya
tantalum	other_metals	Tantalum	ohata, hiranoya
radiator_ac	mixed	A/C (copper-aluminium) radiators	ohata, hiranoya, kousyo, kouchi
radiator_brass	mixed	Brass / semi-copper automotive radiators	ohata, hiranoya, kouchi
radiator_aluminium	mixed	Aluminium automotive radiators	ohata, hiranoya, kouchi
water_heater	mixed	Gas water heaters (whole units)	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kouchi, kousyo
gas_meter_aluminium	mixed	Gas meters with aluminium housing	ohata, kousyo
alternators	mixed	Alternators (dynamos)	ohata, hiranoya
starter_motors	mixed	Starter motors	ohata, hiranoya
industrial_mixed_scrap	mixed	Industrial mixed scrap (Kogyo zappin)	ohata, hiranoya, yagi, kouchi, kousyo
ferrous_general_yard	ferrous	General iron & steel scrap (yard buying grade)	ohata, hiranoya
ferrous_used_steel_plates	ferrous	Used steel road plates (reusable)	ohata, hiranoya
ferrous_electric_special_a	ferrous	Den-toku A: heavy melting, ≥6 mm, ≤500×1500 mm (billets, sections, rails)	tokyo-steel
ferrous_special_a	ferrous	Toku A: heavy melting, ≥6 mm (heavy vehicle / ship breaking)	tokyo-steel
ferrous_heavy_special	ferrous	Tokkyu: heavy melting, ≥3 mm	tokyo-steel
ferrous_heavy_1	ferrous	Ikkyu (grade 1): heavy melting, ≥1.6 mm	tokyo-steel
ferrous_heavy_2	ferrous	Nikyu (grade 2): heavy melting, ≥1.0 mm	tokyo-steel
ferrous_light	ferrous	Kyugai (below grade): light scrap, <1.0 mm	tokyo-steel
ferrous_new_cuttings	ferrous	Shindachi: new press-shop cuttings (loose or pressed)	tokyo-steel
ferrous_new_cuttings_loose	ferrous	Shindachi bara: new cuttings, loose	tokyo-steel
ferrous_new_cuttings_press_a	ferrous	Shindachi press A: new cuttings, pressed	tokyo-steel
ferrous_new_cuttings_press_b	ferrous	Shindachi press B: new cuttings, pressed	tokyo-steel
ferrous_c_press	ferrous	C press: machine-pressed bales such as beverage cans	tokyo-steel
ferrous_turnings_pressed	ferrous	Pressed steel turnings	tokyo-steel
ferrous_steel_turnings	ferrous	Steel turnings (Ko-darai-ko)	tokyo-steel
ferrous_cast_iron_turnings	ferrous	Cast-iron turnings (Sen-darai-ko)	tokyo-steel
ferrous_motor_blocks	ferrous	Motor / engine blocks	tokyo-steel
ferrous_shredded_a	ferrous	Shredded scrap A (autos, appliances)	tokyo-steel
ferrous_shredded_c	ferrous	Shredded scrap C (cans and similar)	tokyo-steel

How much does it cost?

Pay-per-event: a tiny start charge of $0.00005 (Apify's default Actor Start event, charged once per GB of memory; this Actor runs on 1 GB) plus a per-row price:

Event	What it is	Price
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	Once per run (per GB of memory)	$0.00005
Result (apify-default-dataset-item)	Each price row returned	$0.003 (FREE and BRONZE plans) · $0.002 (SILVER and above)

A full run of all dealers (about 480 rows) costs about $1.44 on the FREE plan and $0.96 on SILVER. A copper + wire watch (includeUnmapped: false) returns about 60 rows on its first run; in mode: "changes" later runs return only the rows that moved, often a few dozen or none, and you pay only for rows returned. Use maxItems to cap spend.

Integrations: API, MCP, and AI agents

This Actor is read-only: it only reads public price pages and PDFs, never logs in, submits forms or changes anything on any website. It is safe for AI agents to call autonomously.

API (curl)

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/datalab-jp~japan-scrap-metal-prices/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"dealers": ["tokyo-steel", "ohata", "hiranoya", "kimura", "yagi", "kouchi", "kousyo"], "maxItems": 3000}'

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("datalab-jp/japan-scrap-metal-prices").call(run_input={"dealers": ["tokyo-steel", "ohata", "hiranoya", "kimura", "yagi", "kouchi", "kousyo"], "maxItems": 3000})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('datalab-jp/japan-scrap-metal-prices').call({ dealers: ['tokyo-steel', 'ohata', 'hiranoya', 'kimura', 'yagi', 'kouchi', 'kousyo'], maxItems: 3000 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

The synchronous run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint waits up to 300 seconds; a full run normally finishes in well under a minute.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Through the Apify MCP server, an agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, LangChain…) can discover and call this Actor with natural-language intent such as "What are Japanese yards paying for bare bright copper wire today?". Useful arguments for agents: itemCodes (e.g. ["copper_bare_bright_wire"]), includeUnmapped: false for a clean comparison table, and dealers: ["tokyo-steel"] for steel scrap. Every row states its unit (JPY/kg or JPY/t), tax treatment and priceDate, so the agent does not have to guess.

Related Actors

Other Japan data Actors by the same developer:

• Japan Gold & Silver Prices – Dealer Buy & Retail — gold, silver, platinum and palladium dealer prices in one table
• Japan Trade Show Exhibitor List – JIMTOF, CEATEC — exhibitor lists of Japanese trade shows (company-level data)
• Japan Tax Auction Real Estate – NTA Public Auction — real estate from National Tax Agency public auctions
• Mercari Japan Scraper – Listings & Item Details — Mercari listings and sold prices

FAQ

Is scraping these price pages legal? The Actor reads only prices that the companies publish openly on their websites for anyone to see, without logging in or bypassing any access control, at a low request rate (at most 2 parallel requests). Before adding a source we checked its robots.txt and site notices (2026-10-10); one dealer whose site prohibits unauthorised reproduction of its content was left out. Only factual price data is returned — no photos, descriptions or personal data. You are responsible for using the data in line with applicable law.

Can I use it through the API? Yes — see the curl, Python and JavaScript examples above. Results can also be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel or sent to webhooks, Google Sheets, Slack and more via Apify integrations.

Can AI agents use this Actor? Yes. It is read-only and returns explicit units and dates; see Use with AI agents (MCP) above.

Why is a price different between dealers for the "same" item? Each dealer grades material slightly differently and updates on its own schedule. Compare priceDate first; itemNameJa and gradeJa show the dealer's exact wording behind each itemCode.

How does change tracking work? The Actor stores the last prices in a named key-value store in your Apify account (stateStoreName). Each run compares with it and updates it. Use a different name per scheduled task if the tasks use different filters. If a run's output is cut by maxItems or a spending limit, the store is not updated, so you will not miss a change.

Why did I get 0 rows? Check RUN_REPORT in the run's key-value store: it gives each dealer's status and a plain-language hint. Common causes: filters that match nothing (e.g. dealers: ["tokyo-steel"] with metalGroups: ["copper"]), or mode: "changes" on a day when no published price moved.

Is the Tokyo Steel price per tonne and tax-inclusive? Per tonne: yes (unit: "JPY/t"), although the sheet itself does not print the unit. Tax: the sheet does not say, so taxIncluded is null.

Do I need a proxy? No. The Actor connects directly by default. On 2026-10-10 the Tokyo Steel, Ohata and Kimura pages answered from the Apify platform both directly and through the datacenter proxy; the other dealers were checked from a Japanese connection. If a site ever blocks direct access, enable Apify Proxy; with no group chosen the Actor uses Japan-based residential IPs.

Disclaimer

Prices are copied from public reference price lists published by the companies named above and are provided as-is for information. They are not offers to buy or sell; actual buying prices depend on quality, quantity, delivery and the dealer's assessment, and may change at any time. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tokyo Steel or any of the dealers.

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中文摘要（简体） 本 Actor 每次运行汇总日本废金属收购价格：东京制铁（Tokyo Steel）各工厂的废钢收购价（日元/吨，来自官方 PDF 价格表）以及日本六家废料回收商公布的废铜、电线、黄铜、青铜、铝、不锈钢、铅锌收购价（日元/公斤）。 每条数据包含统一的品目代码与英文名、日文原名、单位、价格适用日期，以及与上次运行相比的涨跌（可只输出变动的价格，适合每日监控）。 适合废铜进口商、贸易商和经纪人掌握日本国内回收价格水平；只读、无需编程，可通过 API 或 MCP 供 AI 代理调用。