One of the first daily-life obstacles for a foreign resident in Japan is putting out the rubbish. The difficulty is less the fineness of the sorting than the fact that the rules are not national.
The municipality decides
Sorting categories, bag types and collection days are set by each city, ward or town — not by the national government. Move between two wards of Tokyo and the categories change.
Which means every move requires relearning. Carrying over the habits of your last address gets your bag left on the kerb.
Your ward office hands out a guide when you register your new address. Many publish multilingual versions, so ask at the counter.
The usual categories
They vary, but broadly:
- Burnable — food waste, paper scraps, soiled paper
- Non-burnable — metal, ceramics, glass
- Recyclable — PET bottles, cans, glass bottles, paper, cardboard
- Oversized — furniture, appliances
PET bottles go out with the cap and label removed and the inside rinsed. In most municipalities the cap and label then belong with plastics.
Oversized waste costs money
Large items such as furniture or a bicycle cannot go out as ordinary rubbish. You book a collection with the municipality, buy a disposal sticker at a convenience store, attach it, and put the item out on the assigned day.
The gap between booking and collection can be several days. Remembering the day before you move is too late.
Designated bags and timing
Many municipalities require designated bags, sold at supermarkets and convenience stores. Some accept only clear or translucent bags.
Timing is fixed too: generally the morning of collection. Most municipalities prohibit putting bags out the night before, because crows and cats tear them open.
What happens when it goes wrong
A non-compliant bag is not collected. It gets a warning sticker and stays where it is. In an apartment building it sits there unclaimed, and becomes friction between neighbours.
Foreign residents are easily blamed in that situation, when the cause is usually that nobody told them. Handing over the rules once, at move-in, is the fastest fix available to the receiving side.