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Tokyo’s Shibuya puts up new posters asking visitors to use recycle boxes properly

Casey Baseel Sep 11, 2026
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Campaign is neighborhood’s latest attempt to keep litter and overtourism in check.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood was pretty firmly in the “only if you have spare time” section of most tourists’ Japan travel plans. Sure, Shibuya always had shops, restaurants, bars, and clubs, but the common attitude was that there were better ones to be found in Harajuku, Ginza, Shinjuku, or Roppongi, especially for those visiting from abroad.

Nowadays, though, Shibuya has become a must-see part of Tokyo for many visitors from overseas who want to experience crossing the now-world-famous Shibuya Scramble intersection, snap a photo with the statue of faithful dog Hachiko, check out the exclusive merch at the Shibuya Pokémon Center, and otherwise bask in the multitude of backdrops for eye-catching selfies for social media.

Along with increased tourist numbers, though, Shibuya has also been seeing increased levels of litter, which is leading to a new plea to help keep the neighborhood clean.

On September 1, Shibuya Ward and the Japan Soft Drink Association launched a joint public awareness campaign reminding everyone not only to use the recycling containers placed next to vending machines, but to use them properly. Posters, with both English and Japanese-text versions, make it clear that the recycling containers are for empty drink containers only, specifically PET (plastic) bottles, glass bottles, and cans.

Anything else needs to be disposed of elsewhere, and the posters emphasize four items in particular. While the recycling boxes are for empty drink containers, they’re not for empty plastic cups of the kind you’d get with a Starbucks Frappuccino or convenience store smoothie. Because of their size and shape, cups of this type can block the receptacle’s opening, preventing others from being able to use it as intended. Plastic bags also aren’t supposed to go in the recycling box, nor are mobile batteries or cigarette butts. The poster also makes a special point of explaining, to anyone thinking they’ve found a clever loophole, that putting cigarette butts or other trash inside a plastic bottle and then putting that bottle inside the box is also not allowed.

▼ The Japanese-text version of the poster. It’s strange that the illustration shows a crushed can, and it’s best not to distort their shape, so that they’ll slide more easily into the recycling box’s opening.

The physical printed poster is being displayed at a half-dozen public smoking areas in Shibuya, and notices are also being displayed on the signage system inside and outside Shibuya’s Miyashita Park entertainment complex.

In addition, bilingual English/Japanese reminder videos will play in the area around Shibuya Station, and the campaign’s organizers say they plan to add Chinese and Korean-language materials to spread the word as well.

▼ A still from the video message

The move follows a recent amendment to Shibuya’s local ordinances, which now require more public trash cans, plus new fines for littering that went into effect this summer.

Though it’s unfortunate that part of the price of less litter appears to be putting up a bunch of extra cautionary notices, hopefully the campaign will help instill a sense of how important it is to dispose of waste in its proper place, and maybe some day doing so really will become something visitors do as a common-sense matter of course.

Source, images: PR Times
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