
Why the Japanese Don't Litter - jmduke
http://japantravelcafe.com/japanese-culture-2/why-the-japanese-dont-litter
======
hkmurakami
Japan's very low number of public trash cans isn't just because of this
"tradition and culture of courtesy and bringing trash home". It is also a
direct result of a Sarin gas terrorism attack that hit the Tokyo subway system
in 1995, whereupon some of the weaponry was deposited in a public trash can.
Afterwards, the number of public trash cans was dramatically reduced.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway)

Source: Friend who grew up in Tokyo and was 10 years old when the attacks
happened. He was using one of the attacked subway lines regularly.

~~~
ekianjo
> It is also a direct result of a Sarin gas terrorism attack that hit the
> Tokyo subway system in 1995,

Precisely, the author is just plain ignorant. By the way the same thing
happened in France after the metro bombinga.

~~~
Semiapies
And in the UK after enough IRA bombs in wastebins.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
And, of course, getting rid of wastebins in the UK hasn't stopped bombings
altogether, but it has made it frustratingly difficult to dispose of your
litter (I do happen to always take mine with me anyway, but evidence suggests
plenty of people don't). Much better - and in use in sensible locations - is a
simple transparent bin/bag. Why they're not in use in more places, I'm not
sure.

~~~
qq66
When I lived in the UK (2002-2003) I was told that its perfectly acceptable to
leave your litter on the train platform against the wall as there are people
who regularly come by to clear it. Is this still true?

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
I've never heard that. It's certainly 'acceptable' to leave litter on the
train at the final stop, but other than that I think pretty much all littering
is approached with typical British sensibilities - we frown on it, from afar.

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ekianjo
Japanese dont litter ? This must be a good joke !! Japanese litter everywhere
where they feel safe to do it. Go to a Hanabi Taikai (fireworks in summer) and
on your way back you will be WALKING on litter for 1 kilometer. Go hiking in
the mountains and you will see the extent of Japanese littering when noone is
looking. Mountains of cans thrown away by hikers. Go in the countryside and
see whay people leave on the side of the street. Oh yeah, they do litter just
like everyone else, they are just a little more ashamed to do it public, and
in the city the public services are just very efficient at cleaning up anyway.

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
There's trash all over the street in parts of Roppongi and Kabukicho on a
Friday or Saturday night, same as any bar district in the US or Europe.

I think people are overlooking that it's rich folks at the World Cup. I doubt
the Americans down there are leaving trash around either.

~~~
spoint
Neither of these places are pinnacles of Japanese society - all bars, strip
joints, and foreigners.

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itazula
In Tokyo, I do very occasionally see people eating while walking or even
inside a train. It's probably more common now simply because there are more
take-out possibilities, e.g. take-out from Starbucks. There seems to be less
stigma now.

The article paints a little bit of a rosy picture regarding people and their
trash. I do often take home my trash so that it can be properly disposed of
(the city picks up different kinds of trash on different days, for proper
disposal or recycling), but I do this somewhat reluctantly. Who wants to carry
around trash? And sometimes, if I'm lazy, I put the trash into the outside
trash bins of whatever convenience store happens to be nearby. In fact, I
think the now ubiquitous presence of convenience stores goes a long way to
explain why there are very few public trash cans.

While most people here do not litter, there is a small percentage who do,
either regularly or because they're drunk and have lost their sense of social
responsibility. But there's always a group of volunteers (often senior
citizens) who clean things up every morning. Also, the well-heeled routes are
often in front of stores or restaurants, and it's not surprising that someone
will be cleaning up in front.

But overall, there is very little littering.

~~~
free2rhyme214
Ya it was cleaner when I was in Tokyo but people also smoke more there and the
subways are crowded. Pros and cons.

~~~
itazula
The smoking is a peeve of mine. So many young people in Japan smoking. It's
very surprising because people know better.

~~~
free2rhyme214
They do know better but what I witnessed in Japan was wayyy too much group
think going on and not enough individualism.

That's probably why there hasn't been that many successful startups in Japan
when there's a population of over 100mm ppl.

~~~
itazula
Startups or not, and getting a little off-topic, it will still be thrilling to
see a humanoid land on the moon, perhaps even more thrilling than seeing a
human doing the same thing.

And just for fun (because I like the story), according to the Wikipedia
article,
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichiro_Honda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichiro_Honda),
Mr. Honda had a little "startup" going in elementary school:

"Honda was not interested in traditional education, his school handed grade
reports to the children, but required that it will be returned stamped with
the family seal, to make sure that a parent had seen it. Soichiro created a
stamp to forge his family seal out of a used rubber bicycle pedal cover. The
fraud was soon discovered when Honda started to make forged stamps for other
children. Honda did not realize that the stamp had to be mirror-imaged. His
family name 本田 was symmetrical when written vertically, so it did not cause a
problem, but some of other children's family names were not."

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arete
Conversely, check out Yoyogi park on the Monday after a hanami weekend. The
ground is covered in garbage, broken bottles, cans, etc. Or check out the
square at Shinbashi station after the salarymen finish their impromptu outdoor
happy hour. All flat surfaces are littered with convenience store wrappers,
empty beer cans and cigarette butts.

~~~
hkmurakami
The culture of conformity is at work even during times of disobedience. ;)

edit: Kind of like "cut days!"

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nikatwork
Last time I was in Shinjuku (2009) there were actual cigarette police in
special uniforms who followed smokers around and publicly chastised or fined
them if they littered. I saw 3 salarymen get busted within about 15 minutes.
The fact that this system even exists indicates that the Japanese do litter.

On the flipside, all the fast food joints had wastebins sorted by garbage
type, and I did get death stares when I accidentally put some rubbish in the
wrong one. Eating while walking also got dirty looks, but conversely you could
buy beer and snacks on some of the trains and drinking alcohol in public is
allowed.

Site has been hugged to death, cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oIkNRIM...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oIkNRIMkh-
IJ:japantravelcafe.com/japanese-culture-2/why-the-japanese-dont-
litter+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au)

~~~
ekianjo
> Last time I was in Shinjuku (2009) there were actual cigarette police in
> special uniforms who followed smokers around and publicly chastised or fined
> them if they littered.

It's probably not working very well, because Shinjuku in the morning (at least
Kabukicho, if that's what you were referring to) looks like a warzone filled
with trash. They do an amazing job to clean it up everyday, however.

~~~
nikatwork
It was the South-West end during the daytime, the crowd seemed mostly business
people. I get the feeling that Kabukicho and Golden Gai are treated as their
own little walled gardens of sin :)

I was also surprised by the number and condition of the homeless. I had
expected a communal minded society would look after such people.

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skwirl
If you are actually wondering "Why the Japanese Don't Litter" let me save you
the trouble of reading this article, which basically can be summed up as
"Because they don't."

~~~
carsongross
And that, right there, is an profound summary of why a strong, common culture
is so important for a social unit: it's the only proven way to escape the
prisoner's dilemma of society.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOK6mE7sdvs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOK6mE7sdvs)

~~~
dropit_sphere
Careful comrade, you're bordering on crimethink there. Why, next you'll be
reading unsanitized research papers! Be on the _right_ side of history,
comrade.

~~~
carsongross
[https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3935515136/hA69BE910/](https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3935515136/hA69BE910/)

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wavefunction
America is actually quite tidy compared to much of the world I've visited,
where the notion of binning rubbish is completely absent and children,
animals, and adults are exposed to litter and refuse and pollution as a
constant and inescapable fact of life.

Hard to take this seriously.

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11thEarlOfMar
Google in Images "Japanese school children clean their classrooms" and you'll
find dozens of photos, not just of putting things away, but literally
scrubbing the classroom floors. Even one photo of the guys cleaning the
urinals. Maybe a prank shot. But may as well not be.

The Japanese see cleanliness and orderliness as a primary virtue and leaving a
place that they have used clean is taught and reinforced by peer behavior at a
young enough age as to become second nature. The fans at Toulouse probably
didn't even think about it.

~~~
edandersen
Not a prank shot - they have actually managed to convince generations of kids
to clean their school's toilets using chemicals and no special training. They
mask it as "culture" but it's a cost saving measure, they could be getting
lessons and an education during that time.

~~~
deciplex
I don't think you can really separate it out like that. It is part of what You
Just Do At School, definitely, but it is also conveniently a cost-saving
measure, sure. That doesn't mean that if you tried to cut it out, that parents
wouldn't complain about it.

At any rate, having seen both, I assure you that there is infinitely more
bullshit that American kids are doing at school instead of learning, compared
to Japanese.

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MVf4l
To me, "not littering" is different from "cleaning up for others". I need an
article to explain why the Japanese clean up for others.

~~~
lovemenot
Fans of any flavour enjoy being subsumed by the crowd and I can imagine this
behaviour was a way for those Japanese fans to prolong their feeling of group
solidarity after the match.

I'd like to have witnessed the propagation of the clean-up-the-stadium meme as
it happened. My guess is that for most of the fans, they'd have been initially
ambivalent; the niceties of this situation being unfamiliar. One fan decided
it was the right thing to clean-up and their neighbours then propagated the
activity throughout the population without giving it too much thought. Once
the cleaning was in motion, each fan would have to define their range of
cleaning for themselves. Since the area is not specified, they'd err on the
conservative side, cleaning a maximal range for any of their possible ejecta.
This would reflect a preoccupation on quality over considerations such as
opportunity cost or fairness.

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pcurve
When I was in Japan for a few weeks, I was shocked how immaculate the whole
country was.

You know what else shocked me? A flight attendant passing through the airport
lobby noticed a small piece of paper litter on the floor. Without any
hesitation, she picked it up and put it in her pocket.

You see other workers do the same. They don't just leave it up to cleaning
staff. Everybody helps out. It's a cultural thing.

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profquail
I'm getting a 503 error from the link; here's a Coral Cache version that's
working:

[http://japantravelcafe.com.nyud.net:8080/japanese-
culture-2/...](http://japantravelcafe.com.nyud.net:8080/japanese-
culture-2/why-the-japanese-dont-litter)

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127
Why do people clean their room and not throw trash on the floor? The same
reason.

