Garbage in Japan

You can walk - even ride - for miles in Japan without seeing a garbage can.

At the the combini (convenience store) like Lawson or Family Mart, when you buy some yogurt or a drink, you're sure to get the appropriate chopsticks, a straw, and maybe a spoon with your order. Also, your items are sorted into separate bags: hot and cold, big and small, etc. So, you end up walkin' away with a lot of excess rubbish. It might seem odd then, that garbage cans are as rare as leprechauns in Egypt. In washrooms they're also a rarity...unfortunately, along with hot water, soap, towels, or even hand dryers. Even shopping malls lack this item I foolishly took for granted back in Canada. People smoke like crazy here, even in restaurants. Which really sucks, in my opinion. There's plenty of ashtrays for those folks, however. Interestingly, there are special "shiroi posto" (white post boxes) specifically for disposal of porno mags. Just so you know where the priorities lie here. Though they're supposedly not that common, here's one by my local JR station:

While the mags might be dirty, the place is not - it's a real rarity to see any trash on the streets at all. I'm serious - they're usually spotless (of course, these scenes in Tokyo might look familiar to some North American readers, but I've never seen anything like this here in this city, even after a festival).

Why, then, are there no garbage cans in Japan? Well, there's a few reasons: According to this military page , "One small, but remarkable, lingering effect of the terrorist incident on the Tokyo population is the lack of garbage cans in public areas; even 10 years later, they are still associated with the sarin attack." Supposedly, lockers, garbage cans, and other potential bomb hiding places were disposed of in order to maintain safety. Another reason might be that people simply don't eat outside or while walking like we do back home. I have flaunted this unwritten rule a few times, enjoying a Family Mart spicy chicken while walking to school and, more recently, celebrated the opening of a new Baskin Robbins while riding my bike. Both times I paid the price (open-mouhed stares from passing cars). Oh, people also don't chew gum and stick it places like they do back home. The third reason is that garbage cans would encourage people to take garbage disposal for granted and they're big on recycling and the environment here. Really big.

Monday's regular garbage day
But I forgot again
There are two big plastic bags
They're lying on the floor
Gomi day Monday and Thursday
Let's take it out in the morning
Gomi day seems like every day
I hear the truck
I hear the warning

Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Oh garbage day... hey!

Wednesday's cans and bottles day
But I forgot again
There are four big plastic bags
They're lying on the floor
Gomi day Monday and Thursday
Let's take it out in the morning
Gomi day seems like every day
I hear the truck
I hear the warning

Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Gomi gomi gomi gomi gomi day
Oh garbage day... hey!

As Shonen Knife's lyrics imply, there are different days for different items ("gomi" is garbage, in case you haven't figured it out). Thus, one must sort one's items into at least four goddamn separate piles (paper, glass, cans, & "PET bottles" - plastic bottles). Supposedly, some cities have up to nine separate groups. There's also special items, like electric stuff and oversized. There are appropriate bags for each and an actual calendar that lists the relative days. You have to peel off the labels from the bottles and jars, as well as clean the insides. "Ha ha", I can hear you thinking. "Screw that! I'd just dump it all into the same bag!". Well, that would be nice. However, the bags are clear and the neighbors are watching. Any garbage screwups and it'll be assumed to be the gaijin's fault. You may get a bag left at your door with a note. One ALT in this prefecture didn't sort his stuff correctly and was identified by the bag's contents. He was called down to city hall and forced to correctly sort the stuff in front of his supervisor. Luckily, I've never had these issues as I eat out a hell of a lot and don't have much rubbish (Interestingly, I just finished packing/cleaning to move, and my JTE was telling me how, when she previously helped an ALT move, her garbage was all dumped into one bag: "Americans are dirty like that".)

You may have heard, based on the legacy of James Fallows' Atlantic Monthly article ("Japan - Land of Plenty"), tales of "sodai gomi". "Yeah, man, the Japanese throw away perfectly good stuff in order to have the latest stuff. Also, their places are small, so they trash the stuff to save space. You can get brand new Sony TV's, fax machines....anything!" Foreigners (Japanese people would be too embarrassed to get caught taking someone's garbage) would go around on sodai gomi day and load up on refrigerators and the like. Unfortunately, this basically ended with the end of the "bubble" (economic boom) in the early 90's. People simply can't afford to throw things away like they used to. However, though I've never seen these discarded diamonds, I have still heard/read that they exist. An interesting note about "sodai gomi" - it's also the sarcastic term Japanese wives use to refer to their husbands, which may give some insight on the power dynamic of marriages here. Conversely, an ex of mine, Junko, was always pissed that people in Canada pronounced her name "Junk-o" (it's actually "Jun-ko").

Currently, people are more likely to bring their stuff to the recycle shop. However, that's a real rip, in my humble opinion. I went there yesterday and was not pleased with the results. Here's what I brought and what I originally paid (in dollarz, not yenz):

a brand new DVD player, used three times (50)
a brand new stool (30)
a brand new mirror (30)
a Muji (like Ikea, but expensive) clothes drying rack (50)
a brand new umbrella pail (20)
a Muji garbage box (25)
a Nintendo DS game (40)
a brand new Japanese study book (30)

I think there was some other stuff too. That's around 275 dollars if my math is good. I expected about 20% (around 50-60 bucks). They offered me 1,200 yen (about ten bucks) for the lot. There's no bartering. I thanked 'em and left (with my stuff), but was actually pretty pissed off. A lot of stuff here is expensive (a book I wanted is 50 dollars in Canada and 600 dollars here!), but has no resale value. No-one has heard of ebay here. People are happy to pay different prices for the same distance on train lines and the same amount for a large size item as a small. So, shopping and stuff like this can be frustrating sometimes.

This ends my knowledge of Japan/garbage-related trivia, so I'm gonna wrap up this mess.