A few years ago when I was put in charge of this model, I was concerned about the dead space in the packaging and the thickness of the instruction manual, and I wanted to improve it. From market research in the region and countries, people saying that they wanted to buy products with environmentally conscious design policies was a big motivation for us.

The team considered reduction of the dead space in the packaging, and the expressions used in the instruction manual. There are cost issues with the use of environmentally friendly materials, but we were able to overcome these by downsizing the entire product and reducing the area of packaging materials. I think downsizing also reduces the environmental impact at shipping time.
I'm proud that we were able to create a product that not only satisfies our customers, but also considers the environment. I'd like to thank everyone involved for their cooperation during the coronavirus pandemic.

I've worked on many Sony headphone packages, but I think WF-1000XM4 "100% plastic-free packaging" is a Sony first, and possibly even an industry-leading environmental measure.
Until now it's always been taken for granted that packaging was plastic, but the rule on this occasion that the packaging must be 100% plastic-free makes the design drastically more difficult.
Through discussing ideas, and solving the issues raised one by one, we were finally able to deliver a package that uses no plastic at all.
We want to continue pursuing environmentally conscious packaging in the future.