I don't like having to write my name on my garbage bag -- it's as if someone is peering into my life.

Yeah, no way I'd ever comply with that.

I guess it is because so many people - not just the excluded foreigner of myth - don't, or are too lazy to, sort their rubbish properly.

Japan is becoming increasingly this way.

I guess it is because so many people...

It's probable it could be one person. The Japanese approach to public policy is to have a blanket response inconveniencing everyone for isolated problems caused by one or a very small number troublemakers.

A female resident of Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima Prefecture.

That city just become paradise for stalker and weird people.

Several years ago my city required us to actually start buying clear bags to put rubbish in (adding to the rubbish toll and probably benefitting some well-connected plastic bag producer). Previously we had used any old bag, including supermarket ones. A number of people would deliberately arrange newspapers inside the bag so no one could see what was inside. Despite there being a separate day for newspapers!

Christmas has come early for stalkers in Ichikikushikino. You can just imagine the smile on their face and their racing pulse as they grab their victim's stuff and look forward to picking through it.

Couriers and postal services now require your phone number and sometimes your e-mail address on packages, which also helps the stalker community.

A) It's an incredible breach of privacy. I can't believe citizens will comply.

B) It's easy; just write a name on the bag. Not your own.

We do not put our names on the garbage bags. I think it is to limit the number of bags. Ours is two bags twice per week. We are also required to buy the right bags from our city. You could put any name on the bags. We also have webcams.

I wouldn’t want to be part of this nonsense…; one thing I’ve learned, since I’m in Japan, is that Japanese people love to invent (new) rules…; sometimes, it doesn’t matter if the cons outweigh the pros, they just wanna do/change something… (this can be especially annoying in the workplace…)

My town's been doing this for at least five years, the bags are see through too. They are also expensive, so the more you throw out, the more you pay.

One of the community things I do has social drinking sessions, and at one of them, one of the neighbours who worked at the incinerator said it was because old people didn't separate their garbage. He blamed them more than young people.

It's silly to give governments power and control over you and not expect them, or be surprised when they ask for more.

However, trash is a much much bigger problem for our species than LBQD whatever or Putins invasion. But that's where the clicks are.

About a year after I moved here I had to visit the local incinerator and noticed all the bags, regardless of colour or contents, were going into the same pit. After that I stopped cutting up, washing and drying milk cartons.

This will definitely happen in some places. Milk cartons can be recycled, but it won't happen everywhere. In some/many? places, they will be burnt like the rest because local businesses don't want them. Note that the concept of "recycling" in Japan does include recycling into heat energy, i.e., burning. Your local gov may boast of "recycling" stuff it is burning.

If you have a woodstove or go camping, sliced up milk cartons do make very good firestarters.

Aluminum cans are worth 1.5 yen or so each, so they won't go in the big burner. There is no risk of that.

Nope! I would not do it!

Our local authority wants us to put kitchen waste in a specific bag (sold by the town) with the householder's name on it. Instead I recycle all our kitchen waste into the allotment and put nothing out for the binmen.

They also only collect burnable/non-burnable waste put out in transparent bags. No problem, the local Coop delivers groceries every week in convenient-sized transparent plastic bags that then get recycled into rubbish bags.

Its funny that there is actually towns in Japan that take writing a name on a garbage bag seriously. In my town the garbage bag is see through but most residents put their garbage in white plastic bag and than put it in the towns garbage bag. No one puts their names on the bag.

Why not just put your apartment # on them.

This could be a new big business though. Personalized garbage bags or name stamps / Hanko for the bags. I just searched GoDaddy, "MyGomi.com" is available for Y8,049.

Easy, prepare two bags, one with the name and some neutral garbage and the other one filled with garbage that you don’t want to have connected to your privacy.

The city is requiring people to write their names on the garbage bags they put out for collection, and will not collect trash bags without the names, raising privacy concerns.

What's the equivalent to Seymour Butts in Japan?

I'm grateful that my city doesn't require that nonsense, nor do they require purchasing special bags. Their only requirement is they need to be translucent or transparent, and a maximum of 45 liters. Of course, they have requirements for sorting/recycling. But, even that isn't as complicated as it is at our second house.

What a load of rubbiiissshhh! Hehe

I imagine most people re-use konbini bags as bin bags so they aren't single use, your waste hidden inside them from your nosey neighbours/local stalkers/Yak ID thieves. Instead of just going out like that, it seems you will have to put your konbini bags of waste in an expensive see-through plastic bag (money going to the local council), so it has an extra layer of plastic to keep it warm, with a fake name on it. Who comes up with this stuff?

We have wheelie bins. The local council scam for these is to start collecting them every 4 weeks instead of every fortnight. This is too long, especially for anyone with kids. Surprisingly, levels of fly tipping go through the roof, so the place looks like a tip. The local council then spend money on CCTV cameras to monitor fly tipping sites, rather than on social care. When all they needed to do was their job, picking up the rubbish.

The solution to every idiot scheme that tries to manipulate people like this is to hate your government (local or national) more than you did yesterday, and remember to vote against them.

I think it's more about specific apartments and that the apartment managers will do the checking not the actual collectors, they would never bother checking that.

We also were required to use clear bags around 2 years ago, this was also a decision by the apartment itself. 99% use clear 45l bags with smaller konbini bags inside though, so doesn't matter at all.

GBR48

Surprisingly, levels of fly tipping go through the roof...

What is "fly tipping"? I'm imagining cow tipping, but with flies. And, that can't be right.

JeffLee Feb. 21  07:50 am JST

The Japanese approach to public policy is to have a blanket response inconveniencing everyone for isolated problems caused by one or a very small number troublemakers.

nicely summed up Jeff, though I have to say that Japan doesn't hold a monopoly on this attitude..... in fact, most laws most places function this way.... but in general still don't stop the bad guys doing whatever they want....

sure- I'll write my name on the garbage-

P.I. Staker