Gov’t selected clean-up initiatives take aim at littering tourists

In another effort to tackle Japan’s overtourism troubles, authorities here are turning their attention to littering and garbage disposal at the country’s popular tourist attractions.

The environment ministry in May announced the selection of five model initiatives each to take aim at littering tourists visiting Japan’s marquee attractions, including popular photo spots in the town of Fujiyoshida near Mt. Fuji, Hiroshima’s Miyajima island, and the streets of Tokyo. 

The ministry hopes that any success stories to come from the public-private sector initiatives will serve as examples for other regions to follow on how they can prevent littering and garbage generation at tourist attractions by promoting changes in tourist behavior.

Post-pandemic, Mt. Fuji has found itself something of a key battleground for authorities in Japan struggling to bring visitor numbers and visitor behavior under control. In the latest maneuvers taking place around the World Heritage-listed mountain, the environment ministry selected an initiative based in the town of Fujiyoshida, in Yamanashi Prefecture, to deal with garbage disposal at popular photo spots around town offering views to Mt. Fuji.  

Under the initiative smart waste and recycling bins, fitted with devices capable of identifying the type and volume of waste, will be installed at top Mt. Fuji viewing spots including Honcho-dori Avenue and Arakurayama Sengen Park, photos of the mountain taken from which appear ad nauseam in Japan-themed Instagram feeds. 

Displays on or near the waste bins will aim to encourage the correct placement and proper separation of trash with amounts of trash and the scale of littering in the vicinity recorded for comparison before and following implementation of the initiative. 

An increasing number of tourists are visiting Fujiyoshida, mainly from other parts of Asia, with the town known as being the closest to Mt. Fuji, according to project documents made available by the environment ministry. 

“The main aim for tourists these days is to take photos of townscapes together with Mt. Fuji so tourists are flocking to the town’s photo spots,” reads a passage in the document.

Another popular Mt. Fuji photo spot in the neighboring town of Fujikawaguchiko found itself in the spotlight in April when the town set up a screen to block a view of the mountain rising above a Lawson convenience store in an effort to control camera-toting crowds and curb their unruly behavior. Multiple holes have since been found in the screen which the town has said it will replace. 

In May, Yamanashi Prefecture launched a system to accept online reservations for visitors wanting to climb Mt. Fuji ahead of the summer climbing season. Climbers using the popular Yoshida Trail to summit the mountain will be limited to 4,000 a day with each required to pay a fee of 2,000 yen. 

On the streets of Tokyo, meanwhile, another of the ministry-selected model initiatives will attempt to tap into evolutionary psychology to deter visitors from littering, by sprucing up the landscape. 

Through the initiative trees will be planted to improve the landscape in parts of Shinjuku’s Kabukicho (around the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower) and the streets around the Hareza theater in Ikebukuro, both popular entertainment areas with a serious littering problem, according to project organizers. In doing so, organizers hope to verify the theory that the improvement of a landscape can serve to highlight what people might consider anti-social behavior and so help to deter it.

A street in comparatively clean and sedate Tennozu Isle, in Tokyo’s Shingawa Ward, will also be included in the initiative to provide a point of comparison. 

(The streets of Shinjuku's Kabukicho entertainment district, subject of a planned initiative aimed at deterring littering.)

While similar landscape-improvement projects have been undertaken in other parts of Japan their smaller scale and a lack of verifiable data and efficacy has meant that they have yet to be adopted on a large scale.  

Stakeholders behind the latest initiative in Tokyo are hoping it will lead to a reduction in littering of around 30 percent.  

The island of Miyajima in Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, is perhaps best known as the location of World Heritage-listed Itsukushima-jinja, a shrine whose large torii gate, located off-shore, appears to float on the waters of Hiroshima Bay when the tide is in. The island is also popular for its resident deer which are largely free to roam the area as they please.

Miyajima is the focus of an initiative selected by the ministry which aims to establish a model of sustainable tourism, promoting both environmental conservation and tourism development, by making use of digital technology and IoT to deter littering, among other measures. 

According to project documents, a lack of information on the location of waste bins and rules for garbage disposal on Miyajima has resulted in an increase in littering and a general deterioration of the landscape, as well as concerns about the deer accidentally eating trash. 

The initiative will see the installation of smart waste bins to facilitate appropriate garbage collection and separation. Digital signage and maps will be used to show the location of the smart bins as well as display the state of congestion in public restrooms and on the streets.  

Of the two remaining models selected by the environment ministry, one is based around an initiative to be carried out in Minakami, a hot-spring town in the great outdoors of Gunma Prefecture. As part of the initiative, organizers plan to install cashless fee-collecting waste bins so that visitors can find value in paying to have their trash disposed of and in exchange receive coupons to use at local shops and businesses.

An initiative on Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, will use a sightseeing-themed smartphone application to guide visitors through “missions” showcasing the characteristics of the area. Information about etiquette will also be published through the app. 

A system of lending or renting reusable water bottles to guests at the island’s lodging facilities, among others, is also planned - the first step toward eliminating entirely the use of plastic bottles on the island. 

In April 2023 the Okinawa prefectural government introduced a non-compulsory cap on annual visitors to Iriomote Island, population around 2,400. Stakeholders and other relevant parties were at the time urged, rather than ordered, to comply with the cap which the government set at 330,000 visitors. 

The five ministry-selected model initiatives are scheduled to be carried out until October with results and findings to be published in December.  

With tourists flocking back to Japan following the lifting of COVID-19-related restrictions, the Japanese government last October unveiled plans to tackle issues resulting from so-called overtourism through countermeasures which focused on overcrowding and bad manners among tourists, as well as improving and promoting rural areas of Japan as tourist destinations.

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