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The story
Tokyo has finalized plans to ban littering in tourist areas and entertainment districts, with an ordinance set to take effect in fiscal 2028 that would fine violators several thousand yen on the spot. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, 11 prefectures nationwide already have ordinances with penalty clauses, but almost none have ever actually imposed a fine — so Tokyo reportedly aims to make its rule stick by using lodging-tax revenue to help pay for patrol staff, among other measures. On the forum thread, opinions split over whether to install more trash cans or keep removing them as before, and posters also traded figures debating the economic impact of inbound tourism.
Tokyo Aims for FY2028 Ordinance Banning Littering in Tourist Areas and Entertainment Districts — Proposal Would Fine Violators Several Thousand Yen : Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Metropolitan Government has finalized plans to enact an ordinance banning littering in tourist areas and entertainment districts. It is considering, as its main proposal, collecting an on-the-spot fine of roughly several thousand yen from violators, aiming for the ordinance to take effect in fiscal 2028.
A Yomiuri Shimbun survey found that 11 prefectures have established ordinances with penalty clauses, but none has ever actually imposed a fine or penalty — Okinawa Prefecture, for instance, said the rule is meant to have a “deterrent effect” rather than be enforced. To ensure its own rule is actually effective, Tokyo is also considering using lodging tax revenue collected from visitors to Japan to help fund the salaries of patrol and monitoring staff.
Source: yomiuri.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
If they also put lodging-tax money toward that and go zero-tolerance on littering, I think it'd be a great initiative.
You really think people who litter are going to sort their trash?
You clearly don't know why they stopped putting out trash cans in the first place.
Is there any other industry that could replace tourism?
You go do it, then.
In the end it's the foreigners' fault.
How much longer are we gonna keep pushing this inbound tourism thing?
The COVID years were better.
Don't call littering fines "uptight." The people cleaning it up are paying out of their own pocket.
This damn inbound tourism thing is only 2% of GDP.
It's our second-largest export category after automobiles — enough to offset the digital trade deficit and then some.
Annual spending by 8 million Chinese tourists: 1.7 trillion yen.
Annual overseas sales of just one company, Shin-Etsu Chemical: 1.9 trillion yen.
Advances in science and engineering can generate economic ripple effects 10x, 100x, 1,000x, even 10,000x bigger.
This crappy, bottom-tier inbound tourism industry can only grow by racking up headcount at the border — and boosting that headcount requires policy-driven yen depreciation.
In the end, aside from a tiny group with vested interests, the vast majority of the population just ends up struggling to get by, while the living environment keeps getting wrecked.
Honestly, if you read the original source, it's obvious at a glance that this statistic released by the Japan Tourism Agency is riddled with lies.
For manufacturing, they break things down in detail — cars, electronic components, appliances — but for food service, lodging, airlines, etc., they lump it all together under one "tourism industry" total.
The result is rigged to make the tourism industry's economic scale look huge while every individual manufacturing sector looks small by comparison.
It's an extremely dishonest trick.
Japanese people finally developed the habit of carrying their trash home with them — bringing back bins would just drag us back to the Showa era.
Without trash cans, people will just dump litter wherever.
Fine for the locals, but what about Korean tourists?
So they're already saying "there's no bin, so I'll just take it," huh?
No problem — just rehire the cleaners as littering monitors.
Fine revenue comes in too, so it's a win-win.
Huh, there's that option.
But then instead of being thanked, they'd become the ones people resent.
Set up a middleman org to skim a cut off the top — sweet deal. ("nakanuki": pocketing a cut as a go-between)
Installing them just isn't realistic.
Tightening the rules is the better move.
What matters is the actual outcome, right?
With the number of foreigners only going up, tightening rules is pointless if littering doesn't actually go down.
The number of foreigners is going to keep rising regardless, and I don't buy that regulation alone will bring it down.
Alright then, let's hear your brilliant idea.
>>Shibuya Ward, home to the famous scramble crossing that's become a tourist landmark, started collecting its own fine (2,000 yen) under a ward ordinance back in June.
Foreigners made up about a quarter of the roughly 1,000 people fined for littering, and the ward says "the trash has visibly decreased."
↑ So there are actual results.
Let each municipality decide for itself.
Personally, I think putting out trash cans is the way to go.
If the trash is going to pile up either way,
which is better — left lying on the street, or contained in a bin?
It's really up to the municipality to decide that on its own.
Why are you asking me?
Even with trash cans out, idiots will just dump their household garbage in them and they'll fill up anyway.
It doesn't solve a damn thing lol
Maybe just get rid of the pay-per-bag trash system, then?
That would solve the problem of foreigners littering all over the place.
Which option to go with is up to each municipality.
That's not a solution at all, lol
But making an ordinance isn't going to solve anything, is it?
The trash itself won't decrease,
there still won't be anywhere to throw it away,
and it's not like foreigners will get kicked out.
Japan wants to sell what it can sell and rake in the money, after all.
Every once in a blue moon some unlucky foreigner will get hit with a fine that, converted from their home currency, means nothing to them — that's all this amounts to.
You're the one who should be laughing at yourself here.
>>Shibuya Ward, home to the famous scramble crossing that's become a tourist landmark, started collecting its own fine (2,000 yen) under a ward ordinance back in June.
>>Foreigners made up about a quarter of the roughly 1,000 people fined for littering, and the ward says "the trash has visibly decreased."
↑ So there's already a precedent showing results.
What's with the "you're the one who should be laughing" line, lol
Sure, threatening people with penalties might reduce it, but is it really okay to become a country run like some reign of terror?
If you actually broke it down carefully, the drop might just be because Japanese people stopped littering — not the foreigners.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
According to Yomiuri Shimbun reporting, 11 prefectures nationwide have littering ordinances with penalty clauses, but none is said to have ever actually imposed a fine or penalty. Shibuya Ward began collecting its own 2,000-yen fine this past June, and while foreigners made up a quarter of those fined, the ward has reported that litter has visibly decreased as a result. Building on this precedent, Tokyo is considering, as its main proposal, using lodging tax revenue collected from visitors to fund patrol staff salaries. On the forum thread, opinions were split between adding more trash cans versus sticking with the current scarcity of bins and relying on penalties instead. There were also posts comparing inbound tourism spending’s share of GDP against manufacturing export figures, but it’s worth noting these numbers are just claims made on an anonymous message board — their sources and calculation methods couldn’t be verified within the article.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “[Tokyo] Ban on Littering in Tourist Areas and Entertainment Districts — Tokyo Aims for FY2028 Ordinance, Proposal to Fine Violators Several Thousand Yen.”
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