There is nothing that sends me into an instant fit of seething rage more than the sight of someone callously littering. I don’t know why this bothers me so much but thank god firearms are illegal otherwise there would be alot of dead polluters. It really isn’t such a big deal compared to some of the more harmful acts perpetrated by human beings and while I’m not claiming to take the moral high ground here, somehow littering is the trigger for me to go postal. And this isn’t a Japan thing either. Just yesterday, I witnessed a western business man throw a bunch of crumpled paper into a bush which was 2 metres from a trash can.
It’s a well known fact that the cleanest place in Japan is Tokyo Disneyland. While the path leading up to the top of Mt. Fuji during peak season is a disgrace. Tokyo as a whole is rather clean considering the size and population destiny. Dirty areas are generally dirtier and clean areas are almost always litter free. I think the worst the city has ever gotten was immediately after the sarin gas attack in 1995. They basically removed almost every trash can in the city so you could not throw away your garbage. This was supposed to be an attempt to prevent more terrorists acts, although if I remember correctly there was never any bomb in any trash can to begin with. People started to dump gomi on the street claiming that it was the city’s fault for not providing trash cans and shoganai..a small piece of trash would evolve into a big pile very rapidly. Broken Windows Theory in action. Shinjuku station was a mess for a while. Since then I don’t think it has been the same. There are still too few trash cans in public places and most train platforms will have one at most if at all. Along some major roads there are places piled high in garbage where people throw junk out their windows while waiting at an intersection. The garbage piles up because these places are harder to get to to clean.
Thinking about why this irks me so much I realized that it’s not so much the litter but the littering that bugs me. The fact that some otherwise normal people can throw stuff away in the middle of the street as if it was perfectly fine and not feeling the least bit of guilt that they’re messing up the environment, that disturbs me. Which is why I can never enjoy Hanami. The hypocrisy of the “Let’s enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms and then dump our garbage at the base of the Sakura tree” puts me in a bad mood everytime.
I would never have thought that in Japan people would leave their trash anywhere.
Then again, I think it is the same everywhere. Lately on a beautiful site in French Alps I have seen a lot of people just littering everywhere without any after thoughts.
I am like you, I just get mad when I see that. One of the worst attitude is people smoking.
They buy their cigarette pack, unwrap the little plastic wrap and thow it, then they throw their cigarette butt everywhere. Try asking one of them about it, he will always tell you that it is not so bad as they are biodegradable…. Right, but it might take a couple of years to begin to disapear
Yeah, it’s a mixed bag. I saw a Japanese businessman crumple up his empty cigarette pack and throw it on the ground… right before he walked one meter toward a cigarette vending machine which included a trash recepticle precisely for that purpose. IMHO, smokers are the worst offenders–they’re just so used to throwing their butts anywhere. They throw them out the windows of their cars even though they have butt trays in the dashboard, which get emptied by gas stand staff every time they fill up. Go outside on almost any street in Japan, stand still, then look down; you’ll probably be able to see up to a dozen cigarette butts in various stages of decomposition. This is pretty much everywhere.
It seems to me that Japanese people tend to keep their own areas clean–in front of their stores and houses–but litter shamelessly most every other place. (Like politeness–Japanese people do it in private, but not in public.) I have seen some cases of considerate people, like the time I climbed Fuji, and I saw a smoker putting his butts out into a small container he kept in his pocket. Too few people like that, however, and since the trail is too hard to police, the trash does build up, like you said.
My own habit is to pack my trash; put paper or whatever else in my pocket or carry it until I get to a trash can; letting so much as a stray tissue get away from me on the street just bugs me, I can’t do it, even if everyone else does.
I agree with you. However, the litter bugs me more than the litterers. It’s an eyesore. Coming from toilet-bowl Silicon Valley to Japan for the 1st time in 2001 I was astounded at how clean most streets were. Not just free of trash but even of gravel. It occured to me that the streets in Japan look as if they have been vacuumed. I think living in Japan you have gotten spoiled. In the past 10-15 years, nearly every major metropolitan area in the US has been turned into a garbage dump with California being the worst of them all.
I love the Japanese attention to detail, beauty, and cleanliness. If I was Japanese and saw any gaijin throwing trash in the streets I would berate them to no end. No wonder they have a view of the ‘dirty foreigners’. Frankly I don’t blame the Japanese for wanting to keep Japan closed - they don’t want people coming in and trashing up the place when they go to such lengths to keep it clean.
I recalled only seeing one bin for wastepaper on the platform of Ueno skyliner and with eggshells (don’t ask) in my hands and a train about to pull away soon, I did the worst thing in my life, I threw the eggshells into the bin!
And that brings me to the question of why there are so few litterbins in Japan. Was it already like that before the sarin attack?
But then these days litterbins had become quite extinct in Singapore train stations too for fear of terroism….so I can appreciate the feeling -_-”
I agree with you, I feel bad so much when I see somthing is bad. But I think you are a cool man.
P.s. I’m not expert about English if I wrote wrong I really sorry.
Tokyo’s litter is a contradiction. Some areas sparkling clean, other areas a disaster. I especially love the bikes with handle bar baskets parked outside a station. Wouldn’t you love to come out to your bike after a day of work to find the basket filled with crap?
The biggest problem I find is there are numerous bins for plastic bottles, but there are hardly ever just plain old garbage bins! I get tired of walking around with trash in my pocket all day.
Compared to other cities though, such as Detroit, I would still eat off the streets of Tokyo if forced. (Detroit makes me want to shower the second I leave my hotel room)
It’s not just you; I really hate seeing people wantonly drop crap too. Keep it in your pockets if you can’t find a trash can for crying out loud (unless it’s a cigarette butt I guess, but then again you shouldn’t smoke anyway).
Hi,
Litterers drive me mad!I’m from Warsaw, Poland and I often see idiots who throw cigarettes, mcdonald’s bags, newspapers etc. right under their legs (or under car wheels, right througt a window)they don’t care if a trash can is like a meter away.I think it’s just the way one is raised. I always feel ashamed for my countrymen (especially in front of tourists) but I find out that it’s a common problem all around the world..well..I also hate drunkers-in my part of the world it’s quite a problem, but that’s a different story…
I recall plenty of trash cans in many subway stations (both Tokyo Metro and Toei) up to about a year or so ago, but they were removed to prevent terrorism… Now the only thing to do is use those at conbini.
There is only one thing that is more frustrating than no bins in Japan.. no benches!
Apart from on the train platforms themselves, it’s very hard to find seating in any shopping mall, or public area. Most of the time you have to end up sitting on the concrete edging around a fountain etc.
Sometimes you just want to sit down without having to squat or sit on the filty floor! Perhaps the lack of benches is to stop homeless people sleeping on them?
Just don’t park your mamachari near a pedestrian crossing or you’ll come back to find your basket overflowing with rubbish.
Actually I saw someone park their motor scooter near a pedestrian crossing in Shibuya and people had jammed rubbish into every single nook & cranny of it!
At my former job, we wrote a section on pollution which included a discussion of littering. Time after time, discussions and essays echoed exactly what Luis (BlogD) said about people keeping their area clean but being indifferent to areas outside their personal space.
The reason some areas are clean is related to that. Shopkeepers clean up in front of their shops. It’s only in the areas where no one is directly responsible that things pile up. It’s a direct reflection of the whole culture in regards to only acting ethically when you feel responsible to do so or feel you will be judged or caught if you do not do so.
There is a lot less of an “internal moral compass” in the Japanese culture because they don’t have the same concept of morality. That’s not to say they lack morality. It simply works in a different way. The same person who would blithely toss an empty coffee can in your bicycle basket because you’re not around to see it might decide not to eat a candy bar on the train while sitting next to you because he worries that it may disturb you to hear the wrapper crinkle. An American with his moral compass may feel littering is wrong and not do it under any circumtances but might not worry about making noise and irritating you in a public place because he feels its his right to do whatever he wants as long as it’s not illegal or directly putting you out.
Many Japanese use portable ashtrays to prevent littering, in fact, Japan Tobacco give them out for free. They are little coin-purse like containers lined with heat/fire resistant material. Very handy, and effective in preventing the littering of cigarette butts.
http://www.jti.co.jp/sstyle/manners/ad/kehai/index.html
http://www.jti.co.jp/sstyle/manners/ad/change/tvcm/tvcm05.html
And they even say that portable ashtrays are not an excuse for smokers to walk and smoke on the streets.
Good on JT for doing such a great service to this world.
What a bunch of corporate WANKERS!!!
I hate JT, they’re like McDonalds. They do a few good things for our society, but behind the facade, they are just pure evil! They want more people to buy their products, make them rich, and don’t give a sh!t how many people suffer.
Japan is smokers’ heaven.
Tokyo is hell for any person who likes breathing!
But smokers are slowly changing.
In Brazil they have really good warnings on the cigarette packs telling male smokers if they smoke they won’t be able to get an errection!