How Japan Keeps Clean

Summary

This video explores the cleanliness of Japan despite the scarcity of public garbage cans, a result of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. It delves into the Japanese culture of taking responsibility for cleanliness, from school lunches to neighborhood duties. The script highlights the role of convenience stores as waste disposal points, the 'silver jinzai' seniors in community cleanups, and the collective efforts in waste management. It also touches on the influence of Shinto and Buddhism on cleanliness practices and ends with a call to action for viewers to participate in cleaning initiatives, aligning with the global movement against plastic pollution.

Takeaways

• 🗑️ Japan is known for its cleanliness despite the scarcity of public garbage cans, a situation that arose after the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack which led to their removal for security reasons.
• 🏪 Convenience stores in Japan, numbering over 50,000, often provide waste disposal facilities for the public, making them key locations for trash disposal outside the home.
• 🏫 The Japanese education system instills a strong sense of personal responsibility for cleanliness from a young age, as seen in school lunchroom duties and classroom cleaning.
• 🏠 Japanese people commonly take their trash home for disposal, reflecting a cultural norm of not littering and maintaining cleanliness in public spaces.
• 👴 The 'Silver Jinzai' or senior citizens play a significant role in community cleaning, often seen tidying up public areas, and are supported by local government initiatives.
• 👷‍♂️ Many Japanese workers, including shopkeepers and construction workers, are involved in cleaning around their workplaces, viewing it as part of their job responsibilities.
• 🏘️ Neighborhoods often have garbage disposal groups where residents take turns ensuring proper waste management, including correct separation and timely collection.
• 🗑️ Waste management in Japan is efficient and reliable, with collection schedules that are consistent and rarely missed, even in extreme weather conditions.
• 🌐 The cultural emphasis on cleanliness in Japan has deep roots in Shinto and Buddhist practices, where physical and ritual cleanliness are closely linked to spiritual purity.
• 🌏 The video concludes with a call to action, challenging viewers to participate in local cleanups and contribute to global initiatives like Team Seas, which aims to remove plastic waste from the oceans.

Q & A

Why do people often comment on how clean Japan is?

Visitors to Japan often remark on its cleanliness, which might seem surprising given the relative scarcity of public garbage cans. However, the cleanliness is attributed to a combination of factors including the cultural emphasis on personal responsibility for cleanliness, the practice of taking trash home, and the involvement of individuals and communities in maintaining public spaces.

Why are there fewer garbage cans on the streets of Japan compared to the past?

The reduction in public garbage cans in Japan is a consequence of the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 by a cult. As a security measure, many garbage cans were removed and have not been replaced, leading to a situation where people often take their trash home instead.

Where can one typically find a place to dispose of waste in Japan outside of their home?

Convenience stores, which are ubiquitous in Japan with over 50,000 locations, often provide waste disposal facilities. Additionally, train stations also have designated areas for waste disposal.

How do Japanese schools instill a sense of cleanliness and responsibility in students?

Japanese schools incorporate cleaning duties into the daily routine, with students being responsible for cleaning their classrooms and lunch areas. This practice fosters a sense of self-responsibility and collective duty towards cleanliness.

What role do local businesses play in maintaining cleanliness in their areas?

Local businesses often participate in cleaning initiatives, such as the 'Shinjuku Clean' group in Tokyo, where workers from various businesses take turns tidying up the streets. This demonstrates a high level of self-responsibility and community involvement in maintaining cleanliness.

How do the Japanese handle waste management at home?

In Japan, households may be part of a 'gomi tobban' or garbage collection group, where they take turns ensuring proper waste disposal. In group living situations like apartments, the responsibility for cleaning and waste management can vary, with some hiring external companies, while others organize cleaning themselves.

What is the role of 'Silver Jinzai' in maintaining public cleanliness in Japan?

Silver Jinzai, or seniors, often engage in part-time work that includes local cleanups. They are frequently seen maintaining public spaces like parks and walking paths, contributing to the overall cleanliness of communities.

How does Japan's waste collection system work?

The waste collection system in Japan is characterized by a strict schedule and high reliability. Waste management crews are responsible for picking up waste from collection points, and the public is expected to sort and prepare their waste accordingly. The system is efficient, with collections occurring even in extreme weather conditions.

What is the cultural or religious significance of cleanliness in Japan?

Cleanliness in Japan is deeply rooted in both Shinto and Buddhist practices. For Shinto priests and followers, maintaining the cleanliness of shrines is a significant part of ritual purification. Similarly, in Buddhism, cleanliness is considered a fundamental practice in the pursuit of spirituality.

How do community and group cleaning initiatives contribute to Japan's overall cleanliness?

Community and group cleaning initiatives, such as neighborhood cleanups after events or natural disasters, are common in Japan. These collective efforts, often involving residents, students, and workers, contribute to the country's overall cleanliness and foster a sense of communal responsibility.

Outlines

00:00

🗑️ The Paradox of Cleanliness in Japan

The video script discusses the cleanliness of Japan despite the scarcity of public garbage cans, a result of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. It explains how Japanese people take their trash home, and how convenience stores serve as the primary waste disposal points. The script also highlights the role of the education system in ingraining the habit of cleaning up after oneself, as seen in schools where students are responsible for cleaning their classrooms and maintaining hygiene. The cultural aspect of self-responsibility for cleanliness extends to homes and public areas, with individuals taking the initiative to clean up their surroundings.

05:00

🧹 Community and Workforce Contributions to Cleanliness

This paragraph delves into how local business associations and individual workers contribute to cleanliness. It mentions 'Shinjuku Clean,' a group that organizes regular street cleaning in Tokyo's business district. The script also covers the role of 'Silver Jinzai,' elderly part-time workers who clean public spaces, and how waste management is handled through neighborhood garbage groups and professional waste collection services. The narrative emphasizes the collective effort in maintaining cleanliness, from group cleaning events to the consistent waste collection schedule, even in extreme weather conditions.

10:01

🌿 Cultural and Spiritual Roots of Cleanliness Practices

The final paragraph explores the cultural and spiritual roots of cleanliness in Japan, linking it to Shinto and Buddhist practices. It discusses how cleaning is an integral part of ritual purification in both religions, with a focus on physical cleanliness and tidiness. The script also humorously touches on the idea of 'misogy' or ritual purification through cleaning, suggesting that the Japanese approach to cleanliness is deeply ingrained in their cultural and spiritual beliefs. It concludes with a call to action for viewers to participate in local cleanups, aligning with global initiatives like Team Seas, and ends with a question about cleanliness practices in other countries.

Keywords

💡Garbage Cans

Garbage cans are receptacles for waste disposal, typically found in public spaces. In the video, it's mentioned that they are scarce in Japan, especially after the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995, which led to their removal as a security measure. This scarcity has contributed to the cleanliness of Japanese streets, as people tend to take their trash home for disposal.

💡Recycling

Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products. The script highlights that can and bottle recycling is easily accessible near vending machines in Japan, indicating a cultural emphasis on waste reduction and environmental sustainability.

💡Convenience Stores

Convenience stores, such as those found in Japan, are retail businesses that are typically open for extended hours and offer a variety of everyday items. The video mentions that these stores, with over 50,000 in Japan, often provide waste disposal facilities, serving as a solution for the lack of public garbage cans.

💡Self-Responsibility

Self-responsibility refers to the act of individuals taking ownership of their actions and their consequences. The video emphasizes this concept as a cultural norm in Japan, where people are expected to clean up after themselves, whether in schools, homes, or public spaces, contributing to the overall cleanliness.

💡Education System

The education system in the video is portrayed as a key factor in instilling cleanliness habits in Japanese students. It includes practices like cleaning up after school lunches and maintaining classroom cleanliness, which are part of the curriculum and help develop a sense of responsibility and orderliness.

💡Public Areas

Public areas are spaces accessible to all members of the public. The script discusses how Japanese citizens feel a sense of responsibility for the cleanliness of these areas, often cleaning not only their private property but also the surrounding public spaces, showcasing a collective effort towards maintaining cleanliness.

💡Silver Jinzai

Silver Jinzai refers to elderly Japanese individuals who participate in part-time work, often related to cleaning and maintaining public spaces. The video mentions their involvement in local cleanups, demonstrating the active role seniors play in community upkeep and the value placed on community service.

💡Waste Management

Waste management encompasses the collection, transportation, disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. The video describes the systematic approach to waste collection in Japan, including neighborhood garbage groups and the consistent schedule of waste pickup, highlighting the efficiency and reliability of the system.

💡Group Cleaning

Group cleaning is the collective effort of a group of people to clean an area. The script mentions instances where communities come together for cleanups, such as after events or natural disasters, reflecting a strong sense of community and shared responsibility for environmental cleanliness.

💡Ritual Purification

Ritual purification is a cultural or religious practice aimed at cleansing or purifying a person or space. The video connects the cleanliness in Japan to its religious practices, such as Shinto and Buddhism, where cleanliness is seen as a form of ritual purification, influencing the cultural emphasis on tidiness and cleanliness.

💡Cultural Norms

Cultural norms are the unwritten rules that dictate behavior in a society. The video suggests that the cleanliness in Japan is deeply rooted in cultural norms, where individuals are expected to maintain cleanliness not only in their personal spaces but also in public areas, reflecting a societal value of order and hygiene.

Highlights

Japan is often noted for its cleanliness despite the scarcity of public garbage cans.

Garbage cans were removed from public spaces after the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack for security reasons.

Japanese people tend to bring their trash home due to the lack of public garbage cans.

Convenience stores in Japan often provide waste disposal facilities.

Japanese education emphasizes cleaning up after oneself, as seen in school lunch routines.

Students are responsible for cleaning their classrooms and common areas in schools.

The concept of self-responsibility for cleanliness extends to homes and public areas in Japan.

Elderly Japanese residents often clean public spaces around their homes voluntarily.

Shopkeepers and business staff participate in cleaning the areas around their workplaces.

Local business associations in areas like Shinjuku organize regular cleaning activities.

Individuals often clean as part of their job duties, such as construction workers and bus drivers.

Silver jinzai, or senior citizens, are frequently involved in part-time cleaning and maintenance work in public spaces.

Waste management in Japan involves neighborhood groups and scheduled waste collection.

Japanese waste management crews are known for their punctuality and efficiency.

Community and group cleaning events are common in Japan, such as after local fireworks displays.

Japanese soccer fans are known for their post-match cleanups, setting an example for responsible spectatorship.

Shinto and Buddhism have historically influenced the cultural emphasis on cleanliness in Japan.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to participate in local cleanups as part of a global environmental initiative.

Transcripts

hello world i find that most people who

visit japan comment on how clean it is

this used to surprise me

i always see garbage on the streets

but yeah i guess it's decently clean why

is that

especially when it's kind of hard to

find a garbage can

you can easily find can and bottle

recycling near vending machines but a

straight-up garbage can out in the wild

it can be difficult to come by

and yet there is very little litter on

the streets

well there used to be many more garbage

cans but following the tokyo subway

sarin attack by a cult in 1995 they were

removed as a security measure

since then few of the removed garbage

cans have returned to public spaces like

sidewalks washrooms and parks

it turns out that instead of garbage

flowing through the streets people just

brought the garbage home with them

nowadays your best bet to find a place

to dispose of waste outside of home is

at convenience stores which you can find

over 50 000 of them in japan

and so that i don't have the internet

police coming at me yes there are train

stations that have places to dispose of

waste they often use clear bags so that

you can easily see what's inside them

in any case my point is that there's not

a lot of places to dispose of waste yet

the streets are relatively clean so why

is this

many many people take their trash home

but there's more to it than that i think

it's safe to say that ingrained into the

japanese education system is cleaning up

after yourself

you can see this after school lunch

where they all put away their dishes

there are certain students on duty to

make sure everything is collected

properly and then taken to the kitchen

students even have to clean their teeth

after the classroom is quickly cleaned

up with everyone pitching in

are they doing this in the most

efficient way i don't think so but

that's okay since they're not really

finding much dirt

there aren't any janitors so it's up to

students to keep the classrooms hallways

and bathrooms clean

so if you're a student and make a mess

you're not only creating more work for

yourself but all your classmates

this kind of self-responsibility for

both keeping clean and cleaning up

carries over into all aspects of life

for example let's take people's homes

where the japanese feel responsible for

not only cleaning inside of their

property but the public areas around

them as well

my wife's uncle explains

foreign

me

while i think daily cleaning is not

necessarily the norm it's very common to

see seniors out in the morning cleaning

in front of their homes like this ojisa

who is not my uncle

he told us he saw that this area was

messy with leaves so he just came out

and cleaned it

judging from his garbage dust pan and

where he was i'm assuming he lived in

the public housing on the other side of

the hedge he said that no one asked him

to clean he just thought someone had to

do it so he did it

not every japanese is a do-gooder like

this but i guess there's enough of them

that it adds up

i personally pick up any trash that

finds its way around my house and

perhaps every month or so i'll give the

area a sweep and a hose down with water

but i'd be lying if i said i cleaned on

the daily

just like how people clean around their

homes shopkeepers and staff also clean

around where they work as well

some local business associations

organize workers to clean the area in

shinjuku a prominent business and

government district in tokyo the

cleaning group is called shinjuku clean

every morning one or two people will

tidy up the streets however once a month

they have a big clean up day with 40 or

50 people which is when i shot this

i'll just emphasize this point in case

it isn't clear the workers are not hired

by the business association but rather

are staffed from the local businesses

they all take turns beautifying the

neighborhood they work in

if you look around you also see many

individuals cleaning up as part of their

job like the construction workers who

have a few spare moments

are this attendant before his booth

opens up

and this bus driver who cleans up his

vehicle at the end of every shift

i'm sure he's happy they got a robot to

do this part of the job

while not every worker in every business

has cleaning duties in general i think

you'll find that there's a high level of

self-responsibility for cleaning and

that cleaning is a part of everyday work

life in japan

so does japan have workers that only

clean of course for example these guys

specialize in cleaning up gum from the

streets they're pretty rare to see

outside of busy areas but what you will

see everywhere are silver jinzai

kingdom hey nancy kang drive chandragan

sanji khanna

you'll often see them cleaning up public

places like parks and walking paths

silver jinzai ginzar seniors hence the

silver in the name

they'll do all sorts of part-time work

around the community with a popular one

being local cleanup for this cleaning of

public spaces it's the local government

that foots the bill

as i mentioned in a previous video about

local tokyo neighborhoods you might also

find them doing crosswalk duty around

schools or staff and bike parking lots

in all their capacities they act as

extra eyes and airs on the street

keeping them safe clean and

organized you'll also see silver jinzai

in the private sector like at senior

care homes or in train stations

this particular train line is owned by

the tokyo metropolitan government so

this would technically be paid by the

government

but most train lines are private now

after seeing so many manual tools being

used for some reason i felt happy for

this guy who got to use the floor

cleaning machine

another aspect to keeping the streets

clean is to do something with all the

collected waste

if you have a home then you'll most

likely be part of a neighborhood garbage

group called gomitoban our garbage duty

it might be just your household that's

part of it or it could be 20 or your

area may not have it at all but

generally how they work is that each

household will take turns making sure

the bins and bags are put out waste

separation is done correctly garbage is

covered with a net and that after

everything is picked up the area is

clean

yoga

for group living like in apartments

public housing and condos the

responsibility can vary

for some there will be an outside

company hired to manage the cleanup and

maintenance of the property for others

they might organize some of the cleaning

themselves

once dropped off at collection points

the city is responsible for picking up

the majority of waste

i was impressed to see the spring in the

step of the waste management people for

others living in japan is it just this

area or do all the crews sprint around

like it's some kind of sports

competition

i was also impressed that except for new

year's their weekly collection schedule

never changes

if they say they'll pick up on thursday

they'll pick up on thursday

even with typhoons it's very hard for me

to recall if they've never not come to

collect the waste

speaking of typhoons we had a huge one

hit our area and there was large

large-scale flooding of the sports field

along the edogawa river

and yeah those were teenagers on top of

the toilets enjoying a beautiful

flooding night kids these days

while running along the riverbank after

the water receded i noticed piles of

garbage nicely piled up

i was fortunate enough to meet a

baseball group that all got together to

clean their local field

i saw that it was not only the players

but the coaches and parents that were

all pitching in as well

group cleaning also occurs with planned

events like with fireworks over here

they have hundreds of thousands of

people visit to watch the local

fireworks the waste gets left in

designated areas i know that the next

day there are people that come and clean

up as well but by and large the majority

is either left in the designated areas

are packed up and taken home by the

spectators

and of course there's the world famous

cleaning that's done by japanese soccer

fans

i know that there are other groups like

the one that rachel and june volunteer

with that do beach cleanups

they trash tagged me ages ago to make a

video about cleaning and because i'm

serious about dragging other youtubers

into this i'm taking life where i'm from

so is that late than never

actually it turns out i'm right on time

since mr beast and mark rober just

launched team seas which is an

initiative to get 30 million pounds of

plastic out of the ocean by raising 30

million dollars so i'm challenging you

to do some cleanup in your area and join

me in contributing to the tmc's cause at

teamsees.org

so i started off by asking the question

of why japan is clean perhaps a lot of

modern practices can be partially

attributed to shinto and buddhism

for shinto priests and mikos cleaning

the jinja precincts is a very important

part of their job and has been a central

part of their duties for over 1 200

years

sweeping the grounds is closely

connected with the idea of ritual

purification harae or misogyny

physical cleanliness and tidiness is an

important part of that it's why you

purify yourself upon entering a shrine's

grounds

at home or on vacation japanese can also

be said to do ritual purification in the

form of misogy by having a bath and

cleaning their entire body

i wonder if it's super misogy if you're

cleaning the bath that cleaned the

people

and so if you're cleaning the cleaning

cloths that's super super

no greg it doesn't work that way

okay i guess not

buddhism also has a similar attitude to

cleaning i quote cleanliness is the most

basic practice that all forms of

japanese buddhism have in common in

japanese buddhism it is said that what

you must do in the pursuit of your

spirituality is clean clean clean

this is because the practice of cleaning

is powerful

[Music]

i found it amusing that after crawling

through muddy caves we received some

premium boot cleaning services at the

end of the journey

although it may be the company being

self-serving and wanting clean boots

that go back on their rental shelves and

this is a convenient place to do it

also just outside of the caves these

chickens had diapers

in this area it seems like every living

being is doing their job to keep things

clean

do you know how japanese take their

shoes off at the entrance the ginkgo in

order to keep their houses clean

well i found that ritual is also

observed when working on the buses

thanks for watching see you next time

peace

how does your country keep clean