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Tokyo neighborhood adds new “smart trash cans” to deal with increasing amounts of tourist litter

Casey Baseel a few minute ago
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A high-tech part of Tokyo gets some high-tech help in addressing an overtourism problem and responding to a common traveler complaint.

Downtown Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood is already one of the most popular tourism destinations for travelers in Japan, by nature of being the country’s center of anime and video game fan culture, and a couple of new additions to the district are sure to be instant crowd pleasers too. We’re not talking about a new multi-level arcade or manga merch specialty store, though, but a bunch of new public trash cans.

Japan’s relative lack of trash receptacles in public spaces has long been among the top complaint from foreign visitors to the country, and it’s an issue that exists even in the most densely developed parts of Tokyo. In recent years, there’s been a noticeable increase in the amount of litter to be seen in the city’s most heavily touristed areas, including Akihabara.

▼ A pile of trash on the sidewalk in Akihabara in January of this year

Using funds from the municipal government’s Tokyo Green Up Action subsidy program, Chiyoda Ward, which Akihabara is part of, has acquired 22 SmaGO “smart trash cans” from Tokyo-based tech company Forcetec. Fittingly for Akihabara’s image as a high-tech part of town, these receptacles are actually public trash compactors, using solar power to condense their contents down to one-fifth of their original size. They can also utilize a cloud network to inform maintenance workers of how full the bins currently are, allowing for more efficient coordination of trash pickups.

▼ As is usually the case in Japan, different types of trash go in different containers, so make sure to sort your stuff before you toss it in.

The SmaGO trash cans went into service at 10 locations in Akihabara, clustered around Akihabara Station (秋葉原駅 in the map below) and along Chuo-dori (中央通り), the major shopping street in the neighborhood.

The move follows new ordinances requiring more publicly accessible trash cans, and stricter penalties for not using them, which recently went into effect across town in the Shibuya neighborhood. Both districts’ responses to increasing amounts of litter do make one feel a little sad that the current crop of visitors evidently isn’t as concerned with Japan’s customary etiquette norm of carrying your trash home with you if there’s no public place to dispose of it, but hopefully the new initiatives will result in a return to cleaner streets.

Source, images: PR Times
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