Why it's so hard to find rubbish bins in Japan

Terrible lighting, terrible lighting. What you gonna do? So if you've ever visited Japan before, I'm almost certain that you've come across a situation very similar to this one. You'll finish eating your individually wrapped cracker and then all of a sudden you realise, oh no, I need a rubbish bin. Rubbish bins are notoriously difficult to find in the main cities of Japan. It's usually one of the first things most people notice when they come here. That and how clean all of the streets are which kind of just makes the whole situation even more baffling. Why is it that it's so difficult to find rubbish bins in Japan? Okay, so there is so many different ways to describe the word, the thing that I'm trying to describe. But for the sake of consistency, I'm just going to use the word rubbish bin because that's the one that's most natural to me. So I'm sorry if that offends you. No, I'm not. And the last thing I have to clear up before the comments inevitably start to roll in I know it's not impossible to find a rubbish bin in Japan. Of course, you can go to a grocery store, a convenience store, a train station even which is kind of crazy considering what I'm about to tell you. But just in general, in the main cities like Tokyo and Osaka it's a lot more difficult to find a rubbish bin than you would think. And there's actually a very, very good reason for that. So let's get into it. In Japan in the 80s, things were going very, very well. They were still living off the high of the economic boom of the 70s. The GNP was ranked number two in the world, second only to the United States. And Japan was rising in international power. But at the end of the 80s, a man named Asahara Shoko who called himself the Lamb of God started a new religion called Aum Shinrikyo and it soon became one of the most famous cults in Japanese history. So the gist of what this cult believes in was the main leader, Asahara Shoko, he went to India and he learnt yoga and he was like wow, this is super special, I can fly now and I'm going to ascend to the heavens. So he came back to Japan and he was like everyone, I can fly, I'm going to teach you how to fly. Let's all ascend together. By the way, there's an apocalypse coming in the form of a nuclear war between America and Japan. But don't worry, we'll be fine because we're prepared for it. So the whole world is going to die except for us and we're going to repopulate and start our own new humanity and we'll all ascend to the heavens or something like that. And so everyone was like yes, this is great and he had a huge following of so, so, so many very smart people actually. The man in the picture was a rocket scientist before joining the cult. One of an elite group of doctors, biologists and chemists with a sprinkling of ex-gangsters who made up the Aum's cabinet. And of course he exploited all of the women there and you know, just casual cult stuff. So basically everyone was standing around waiting for this apocalypse to happen but it didn't happen and so they were like, okay let's start World War 3 ourselves let's just give it a kickstart. So first they were going to attack American troops on Japanese soil, but then they changed their mind and they were like actually, let's attack Japanese citizens and just pretend that America did it. So, I don't really know why they went with that plan over the previous one but anyway, that's what they went with and it became the most deadly terrorist attack in Japanese history. So on March 20th 1995, members of the cult boarded five different Tokyo subway trains during morning rush hour on the Hibiya line, the Marunouchi line and the Chiyoda line and they all released sarin gas on board before running away. The sarin gas killed a total of 12 people, seriously injured 50 and caused other health complications in thousands of others. Shortly after that, luckily the police were able to track down and arrest everyone involved in the incident including the leader himself and most of them were either sentenced to life in prison or execution even as late as 2018. Today, the man who founded the group and masterminded the horrific act is executed along with several of his zealots. And this was the point in my research that I realised that Japan still has the death penalty. Who knew? Clearly not me. They actually don't tell the public when they're going to do it, they only tell the public after the fact. So, I think it was around May in 2018 so it's only a couple of years ago they executed the leader of the cult. So after this attack as expected, Japanese citizens were traumatised, they were still very much on edge and they demanded that the government do something to protect them from future attacks. So even though this attack had nothing to do with rubbish bins, historically they've been used in similar attacks around the world so they just decided to remove them from places with high flow of foot traffic. Tokyo was obviously the most diligent with this rule but other big cities like Osaka also followed the same example. As of recently however, a lot of rubbish bins have started to slowly return back to the city, even in high population density areas like at train stations and things like that. But you will notice that most of these rubbish bins have a very small opening at the top and usually the side also has a translucent side to the bin so it makes it harder for people to conceal dangerous items in the rubbish bin. And also every now and again when there's like a big international event happening or something that's a bit more of a high risk situation, like when Donald Trump visited Tokyo last year, they locked off a bunch of these rubbish bins again. So if you are in Japan and you find that you need a rubbish bin, your best bet would be to go to a convenience store or a supermarket, although keep in mind you're supposed to buy something from there first, so just something to remember. Of course vending machines, they have a recycling bin for like a pet bottle or a can. And also at train stations on the platform themselves, they will sometimes have a rubbish bin there. But it's not at every train so, taking a chance really. Or you could just do what every other Japanese person does and just keep it with you until you get home and then you can dispose of it properly. I've heard a couple of theories on how it is that Japan has managed to still keep the streets so clean in spite of the fact that they don't have any rubbish bins around. And one of those theories is like the broken window theory, so it's like if there's an abandoned house that has a broken window, it's much more likely to get a whole bunch of other broken windows because of that one broken window already. So if there's rubbish already on the street, you're just more likely to throw it down on the ground. Whereas if the streets are already ridiculously clean, then you don't want to throw away your rubbish on the ground. Personally for me, I feel like this one is really applicable for tourists and people that are not from Japan already. You don't want to mess up the zen that is already very apparent in Japan, so people are a lot less likely to litter. But personally for me, I just feel as though for so many different reasons, Japanese people seem to be very very good at following the rules and protecting the rules and protecting the peace and the calm that is always around in Japan. So I mean there's a bunch of reasons for that but I haven't got time for it. This video is a lot less structured than they usually are. So there we go, that's the reason why it's so hard to find a rubbish bin in Japan. I think a lot of people when they first move to Japan and you hear of all these new rules and cultural aspects and things that you're just not used to it's so easy to just brush it off as like, oh because Japan, right? A lot of things we just don't understand and you don't know where the rule came from so you just think oh it's just something that they do. But the more I research just little tiny aspects of Japanese culture, just here and there, the more I realise that of course with every rule and cultural aspect there's a reason for it, whether it's historical or not. So yeah, I think for a lot of foreigners they can get really frustrated by all the little rules and the little things that are in Japanese culture that are so different to where they may be back at home. But you know, the sooner you realise that there's a reason for all of these rules, the sooner you'll have a lot more of an enjoyable time living in Japan. But yeah, I hope that you really enjoyed this video. I'm really sorry for this lighting, it's awful. Oh boy, I have to film this at night time because my schedule is mayhem right now. It's gone from doing absolutely nothing for months at a time because of quarantine to now I've started my job but I'm just working non-stop. And I love it. It's 9pm and I've not had dinner but I have to go to bed in an hour. I was going to update people on something. I have a hamster now, which some people have noticed if you follow me on Instagram I'm sure you've seen my hamster. I haven't quite figured out how I plan to exploit her cuteness for my YouTube channel but I'm sure the inspiration will strike one day. I've got a video on my Patreon about my hamster. Her name is Mochi, she's the best thing in the world. On Patreon as well I've also got behind the scenes how I make my videos, Q&A videos and also early access to an ad-free version of all of my videos. Speaking of ads, this video is sponsored by Squarespace. If you have not, if you're the viewer, you've not heard of Squarespace you've clearly not seen any of my videos before because they're a long time sponsor of this channel and also you're probably living under a rock because Squarespace is the best website to help you build your own beautiful website and make your business legit. 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Thank you for watching this video all the way to the end and thank you Squarespace for sponsoring this video and we've got some bloopers! Woo! Made it through the video. Yeah! Ah! And it only took me 38 minutes. Wonderful. Try not to **** it up too much Hannah because I haven't got a whole lot of time. Started a new religion called Aum Shin Nikyo I'm really sorry. Aum Shin Nikyo. Aum Shin Nikyo. Aum Shin Nikyo. Aum Shin Nikyo. Let us try again. Bin, bucket, dumpster, dumps bin, bucket, dumpster, dustbin, rubbish bin, waste bucket, waste bin, wheelie bin, waste paper bin, ash can. Nailed it. Again. It's really difficult to find in the main cities. Huh. Rubbish I'm going to say that all over again. But at the end of the 80s Okay. Let's just start all over again. Let's just start all over again. Why not? They were still living off the eponychus. The high of the economic bin, bucket, dumpster, dustbin, garbage can, rubbish bin, waste bucket, waste bin, wheelie bin, waste paper bin, ash can. Look at me go. I don't know why I did that. I'm sorry. They were still living off Aum Shin Nikyo. Okay. And it won't always be at every play. Play. Play it farm. And I also want bin, bucket, waste bucket, waste bin, basket? Bucket. Boarded five different topio topio. Topio. A good topio. It's a bit of a long story like the things that all la la. They locked a whole bunch of these trash cans again. Why did I call it a trash can? I haven't called it a trash can this whole time. Called Aum Shin Nikyo. La. Gosh it's hard to say. In Japan in the la la la la la la. Your best bet would be la la la la la.