Trash Talking
When traveling, sometimes the simplest things offer a window of insight into the way a culture thinks and can offer some reflection on one’s own culture. In the case of Japan, they don’t have public trashcans.
This seems very minor and, to me, a bit weird. With over 12 million people in the greater Tokyo metro area, most of whom travel via foot, subway and taxi, you’d imagine there’s a lot of trash, but it can take a garbage can seeking sleuth twenty minutes or more to find a public trash can. By the end of any given day in Japan, I’d empty my pockets to find crumpled receipts, ticket stubs, tissues, plastic bags, and empty beverage containers among other things.
There are no public trashcans, yet there is pretty much no trash on the street. When I asked my brother about it, his answer was simple, yet insightful. “In Japan,” he said, “their belief is: its your garbage, its your problem.”
As I begun to dig into that observation a bit more, I began to realize how important ‘personal responsibility’ is in the Japanese culture, and how much this value is in great absence, as of late, in my own country. The cultural embrace of such personal responsibility leads to so many things in Japan from liter-free public parks to a cross-country train ticket setup that effectively relies on the honor system.
A culture grounded in ‘personal responsibility’ might be seen as naïve by some, but if living in a country that puts such a high value on personal responsibility means less garbage on the ground, a city where you can forget your $3000 (US) laptop on a train only to find it in the lost-and-found (as happened to my friend), or a country that doesn’t go to war being stubbornly pushed by a president who can’t take responsibility for his own choices—then I’d rather live in a naïve country.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:05 am
Thanks for the valuable insight! I think a culture grounded in personal responsibility is one that actually recognizes its the only way to live. Culture’s buried under excess eventually find themselves eroding from the inside out, as they don’t respect their fellow citizens or the environment. Hopefully, the rest of us in North America could adopt this trait from the Japanese (hey, it could happen…we already love their sushi)
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Who says Andy Stoll is apolitical? Who would have thought, Andy is a firebrand politician working to bring positive change to a decaying culture. And even better, the younger of the Stoll brothers has taken his lifetime of until-recently-larger-brother whoopings and turned into a Zen Master, achieving satori through the privations suffered at the hands of his maniacal brother.
yeah, I’m at work. I’m bored. Get used to it.
April 4th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Bravo Stoll- I’m sending you’re resume in to the Daily Show with hopes of you becoming the new man on the scene- where ever you are during the tapings. Also, you are now being monitored because of expresion. Personal Responsibility will not be tolerated by this government!
April 4th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
oh a-stoll i love reading this! keep on sharing what you’re learning!!! happy travels
April 5th, 2007 at 9:57 am
what time and space are you living in? April in HongKong? Janauary in Japan? It is a good way to live 2 lives at one time…Or maybe back to the future
April 7th, 2007 at 9:51 am
[…] The greater Tokyo metro area has over 12 million people and no trash cans. Yet there is hardly any trash on the street. Andy Stoll thinks he knows why in Trash Talking. […]
April 26th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
wow, this was very interesting. i’ve never been to japan, although i’m hoping to go sometime soon. but can you imagine what it’d be like if americans had personal responsibility? boy, many bad things would change!