分別ごみ （Bunbetsu gomi）
2 11 2008
分別ゴミ literally means divided/separated garbage. In Japan, many municipal governments require their citizens to follow detailed rules and procedures for waste disposal. There are often more than ten categories to divide trash into, and citizens are to sort them accordingly. Sorted garbage is then to be brought to a designated area on a set collection date in special purchased transparent bags with their names clearly written orattached.
Here are examples of garbage disposal rules issued by Akabira city (Hokkaido) and Matsuyama city. 
This New York times article also describes Japanese waste disposal practices, and the “neighborhood watch” system, that seems to be the main enforcer of these complicated and, at time, very tedious regulations.
Here are more resources on Japanese garbage disposal. There are also included links to information about well-known Japanese concepts, “世間（seken)” and “ 恥（haji-shame)” - both related concepts to consider when reflecting on the neighborhood watch. Please view them and share your opinions.
• BBC News: Living in a World without Waste
• Wikipedia article: “Shame society”
• Giri: A Japanese Indigenous Concept
• Saito san: A clip from a hit TV drama aired in Spring 2008. In this segment, the protagonist, Saito-san accuses a housewife for violating a garbage disposable rule. .
Watch Saito-san ep01 in Entertainment Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
This was one thing that was frustrating (but good) that I’ll remember. Everything bought had to be separated into burnable/nondurable, can/bottle and so forth. It could be so frustrating because, being from the US, you aren’t used to this system and you might not know what is considered burnable/nonburnable, though the pictures by the kanji helped. But then you get something that looks like it could burn, but maybe couldn’t and you don’t know where to put it. Even though it is a hassle, I can see the benefits and think more countries should adopt this system. But I don’t think it’ll work well in America seeing as we’re too lazy to separate items.
An added thing about gomi… there are barely any garbage cans around Tokyo, which is such a hassle and you have to carry everything around. It is a wonder why there isn’t a lot of littering, only the occasional cigarette butts litter streets (but you really can’t carry those things around anyway). I don’t understand why there aren’t garbage cans distributed in streets or stores, it seems logical to have them.
I have to admit that when I saw the video clip, I laughed. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I, as an American, have been set up to look at ultra-righteous characters as ridiculous and petty. Saying that, however, makes me feel kind of backwards and insensitive, especially given that (as portrayed in the above articles, at least) this sort of upkeeping of rules is a big deal to the Japanese.
I guess this is another cultural divide – It’s a view held by many Americans that they don’t need to worry what other people think about them, so they’re free to do and act as they please. Even though I was aware that much of the Japanese culture is focused on keeping up appearances, I was a bit shocked to learn the extent to which it controlled people’s actions. I get the feeling that someone behaving this way here would be regarded as overly anxious at best and somewhat mentally ill at worst. It makes me wonder how foreigners living in Japan and subject to these new rules of society feel, and conversely, how Japanese living in America (where all these rules don’t exist to the same extent) feel.
As far as the garbage sorting goes, I’ll agree with the poster above me that it sounds quite confusing, especially for people who aren’t used to it, and it makes me wonder if there isn’t a better way to go about sorting the garbage – is all this micromanagement of waste by each household really necessary, or could it be streamlined in any way? Kudos to these towns for their efforts to protect their environments and eliminate waste, however. That’s really something to be commended.
What a timely blog post! This reminds me a lot of the recycling program here at Drake. As an EC member, I help pick up all of the recycling for my dorm once a week. We have tried encouraging residents to sort their recycling by type (cans, bottles, cardboard etc) in order to have a proficient recycling system, and we have had many interesting experiences because of this policy. We have had a few great rooms that have sorted everything out into separate bags and done an excellent job recycling and were very friendly. They’ve even come out of their rooms to thank us for picking it up. On the other hand, we have had one room where the residents have been very rude about sorting their recycling and left several complaints about the EC on their white board. I’m not sure why it is such a burden to sort out your recycling bin, but they have strongly resisted it. There is also a room that doesn’t seem to quite understand what is recyclable-they have left jeans and macaroni and cheese packets in their recycling. It almost makes me wish that we had our own Saito-san to encourage good recycling practices. Although, at the same time, I think that if someone approached me in a neighborhood to berate me for recycling wrong, I would think it was immature because that person is not in charge of recycling and I might feel like that person was only doing it out of a petty compulsion. I think it would be very difficult to live in a neighborhood where you felt like your neighbors were breathing down your neck all of the time and watching your every move. It’s kind of a difficult situation, because recycling is a necessary thing. Not recycling is kind of like when people didn’t use sewage systems in major cities a few hundred years ago. Although now we may not see it, trash is building up in the world. Landfills are overflowing, and there is a giant mass of trash that has congealed in the ocean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch). If these problems are not faced, we will continue living in our filth. So, while sorting may be inconvenient, I think it is a very small price to pay for living on a clean planet.
Long before i have the chance to read this particular article, i have had the impression that Japan is a very clean and disciplined country. It adores technoloty the the philosophy of humanization. And it’s traditional “shame” culture made the way Japanese approach their goals so extreme that suicides can be unavoidable.
Now, this article is telling me particularly how Japanses is approaching the goal of making the earth a cleaner and healthier place in live. I was amazed by the fact that in Japan, trash would actually be sorted into 10 catergaries, including water bottles, rubbish of food, and worn-down furnitures. Also, the trash bags that carry each catergory would be marked in different colors. From this, i can tell that Japanese is taking the environmental issue really seriously and using a very systematic approach to solve the problem, which once again proved my opion of Japanese being really disciplined. From the BBC news–a would without waste, i can see how decisive and passionate some Japanese people are about recycling. Since it’s not just about advocating protection of the environment, but trully take action and make recycling a crucial part of daily life. The manual sorting is definitely demanding. I felt like if more technologies can be applied to make the whole process easier, more people would probably be more willing to make recycling a habit.
Compared to the U.S and other developed countries, Japan seems to be more systematic and decisive to make the change.
Then, the “Gin” concept is really appealing and mythfully interesting. Now i know that “gin” has been long rooted in the relationship between people and that it is even perpetual in arts as well. I don’t know still where the concept of “shame” come from, and i fell sad that Japanese would be less happy because they often remind themselves of this “gin” concept that was telling them that they were obligated to meet others’ expectations. I would not want that element in my culture, just because i think to motivate and discipline a nation’s people, there should be more positive way.
The extremity of recycling in Japan is mind-blowing. I wonder what would happen if the government tried that with the U.S. I do think that it is a good cause and that there are good intentions, but I think if it was tested here it might cause a bit of an uprising. Not necessarily because Americans hate the environment, but because we do not like being told what to do and it is a bit inconvenient. I do like the idea of the separation of many items and the fact that more items are able to be recycled because of the separation. In the U.S. we usually have three categories of recyclable items plus our usual garbage. At first I thought it was a bit weird that there were separate categories for “garbage” and “other garbage” on the color coded list, but I understand it because one type of garbage deals with leftover foods that can be composted vs. other garbage. I think that a big part of the reason that this system works in Japan much, much, much better than it ever would in the United States is a result of the difference in the way Americans view society vs. the way the Japanese view it.
A colossal difference between American and Japanese culture is the difference in cultural approaches. One is a highly individualistic society, meaning being focused on the self, where as the other is immensely collectivistic, meaning focused on the wellbeing of the group. Each society has its pros and cons. On one hand you have America, the individualist. Americans are often seen as selfish by other countries because of the every-man-for-himself attitude. On the other hand, you have Japan, the collectivist that is focused on the group and as a result extremely self-conscious of what everyone is thinking. Yes, in my opinion the Japanese are highly motivated by shame, or lack-there-of. Embarrassment goes to the extreme in a society like this, resulting in a tremendous amount of self-doubt and ultimately suicide for those who cannot handle it. America has her own share of suicide cases, but for the most part is not as concentrated on the idea of shame. If one makes a mistake, so be it; everyone does it sometimes, no one is perfect. However, American is keen on the idea of guilt and punishment. Yes, if you do something wrong, you should feel guilty. It is a natural thing, but at the same time, most people have the ability to cope with it and learn from it.
My FYS is titled “Understanding Emotions.” Why is this relevant? In this class, I have learned a lot about how emotions affect the way in which one responds to the environment, in this case society and people around us. More importantly in this case, we discuss the affects society has on our emotions. Shame is one of these emotions. I bring this up because of the Wikipedia article describing Japan as a “shame society.” In my class we have been talking about self authenticity and the concept of “conditions of worth.” An example of conditions of worth would be a student whom always receives A’s gets a B. This student now feels that she is not worthy because mom and dad expect A’s and she got a B. A condition of worth is the sense that “I am worthy of love if – and only if – I do this…” I think that Japan is teeming with conditions of worth. Personally I hate them. I think they are extremely harmful to a person’s wellbeing. A huge part of being an “American” is the sense of being true to one’s self and to what I need to do to make me happy. There is a need to do what I feel is right. We all get an icky feeling inside of us when we do something that does not comply with what we want to do the way we want to do it. This is called dissonance and it is your subconscious’s way of telling you that you are not being authentic to yourself. Conditions of worth tear us away from our authenticity. They tell us “No! you can’t do this…you can’t do that,” when we KNOW deep down that we CAN. The fact that Japan is classified as a “shame society” tells me that they have an abundance of these conditions. I am not the one to say that this needs to be fixed, because that is only my opinion. However, I am not going to say that it is perfectly fine for it to be that way because that would be a lie. In Japan people might seem to be okay with the fact that they do not have the privilege to live “authentically” and they may in fact believe that they are living authentically, but to me the reason for this is because it has been trained out of them for generation after generation.
This long explanation of my FYS is my reasoning, in essence, as to why the extensive recycling will work there but not here because the conditions of worth that the Japanese have set on themselves will not allow them to really do what they want, and as one of the articles said, 40% of the people do not like having to sort their garbage into 34-44 recycling piles. However, they do it because they do not want to be embarrassed. If they tried that in America, the people who do not want to comply simply won’t. The prohibition era was a precedent of trying to get Americans to do something that everyone knew would not happen, and the Japanese way of recycling would most likely follow suit.
Before I came to this article, my impression of “separate garbage” has been always related to Japan. It is always heard of Japan inventing new technology to solve rubbish and environment problem. There even have a system which transforms thrown food to fertilizer which is environmental friendly to the land and to the consumer of the fruits or vegetables. I am so impressed that Japanese are able to perform the sorting of rubbish which the process is a real disaster for lazy and impatient people. In my opinion this tradition may work out well is because of the Japanese shame society, giri which cultivate patient and “obligation” to the Japanese. If everyone do it and you do not do it, you will be penalize by other which makes you feel very embarrassed and discomfort. I know in my own country is not going to adapt sorting garbage in these short period of time. We just put everything in a rubbish bag and the garbage truck will collect them by squashing them to minimize space and causes foul liquid of the food to drip all over the road which is disgusting. Furthermore our country has a lot of people who do not throw their rubbish in to the rubbish bin which cause small rubbish all over the road. Although there is law that prohibited that but it is not taken as seriously as in Singapore. Singapore is a really clean place compare to my country. I haven’t been to Japan except their airport, so I am not sure how clean their society is. I bet their society must be pretty clean. When I arrived to Japan airport to have my transfer plane to U.S It is my first time to see so many sorting bins like the picture provided. And for a moment I am still thinking will people throw stuff wherever they want (like my home country which people just throw anything to the sorting bin disregard what the bin objective is) or do they throw accordingly. After briefly seeing through the recycle bins I am impressed how Japanese stick to the rule. No can in the plastic section, no glasses in the can area. I really hope more country able to adopt that. Due to the cause that in my home country recycle is not popular/encourage (very less recycle bin in public) I am not be able to perform recycle. But after coming to U.S I did participate in the recycling process that Drake residence hall encouraged. I really feel that everyone in this world should perform their own duty to preserve our world so that there is a brighter future for future generations. Everyone just needs to do what they supposed to do and most of the problem will be solved. Don’t be the housewife in the “Saito San” which find excuses due to her elderly. Be a responsible person to treat this world so that each day our environment will be better than the previous day.
I am just surprise, why they sort plastic as burnable garbage? Aren’t most plastic can be recycled nowadays? From what I know, any number of plastic recycle sign can be recycled, but to burn it, won’t it affect heavily on the environment?
When I first came to US, I stopped at Japan Airport waiting for transferred flight, and other than those interesting merchandise, like the Japanese “必勝”headband and etc., one thing that caught my attention is the recycle bins in the airports. It’s just like the picture there; I was surprise that there are so many categories for garbage disposal.
Also, 34 categories in sorting garbage is really too much. In my opinion, it is good to sort out those recyclable garbage but 34 categories…thinking about that makes me feel like it might be very time consuming sorting out garbage.
In Malaysia, we have 3 kinds of recycle bins, Blue for paper, Brown for glasses, and Orange for Plastic. Main problem is most of us just don’t recycle, which is not really a good practice. Sometimes my friends just throw those soda cans into the bins, rather than recycle it. Also, not many recycle bins are located in Malaysia, makes people have the reason not to recycle.
In US, I notice that people care more about recycling, though it’s sure that not all of them recycle. As in Drake residence hall, I do see some of them just throw all those card boxes together with the trash rather than recycle it. The most concern on recycling for me is the ‘plastic’ recycling. As we know, plastic can’t be dissolved when buried underground, and will produce toxic gas when burn. So the best way is to reduce, reuse recycle, though I am not sure how they melt those plastic and form new one.
Final thought of mine, recycling is a must in all countries and having good policies for citizens as well as residence to follow shows much more of a effective leader, and together we will be able to reduce the waste and thus have a better environment to live in.
This was a very pleasant suprise for me when I went to Japan. I appreciate very much how enviornmentally friendly they are in Japan. They never leave their trash outside and make sure to save it until they find somewhere to put it. A lot of people smoke, but you never see cigarette butts anywhere- they carry a metal tube thing to put them in.
I have to admit though, it was a but tedious to put trash in separate places. I really had to get used to it at my host familys’ houses. While it was mildly annoying, I think the ending result will be well worth it, considering the recent state of enviornmental crisis we’ve been in. I hope more countries can learn to adopt this method of garbage disposal (including the US). Japan sets a good example of some of the little things that we can do to make a big difference.
All I have to comment about recycling regulations in Japan is it’s great.
It’s confusing – so tedious – but very thoughtful.
I don’t think it would work in Thailand, don’t even think about it. We don’t have that kind of “community leader” who would devote oneself to overseeing his/her neighbourhood’s recycling behaviour. It’s just to hard to happen. We don’t even have a neighbourhood.
It leads me to think about the Monster Parents, and how they use such psychological tactics to demand what they want. The community leaders who are in charge of making sure people sort their trash the right way, write letters, tell them they’re not sorting their trash the right way. This is terrifying, and it’s not just me who think that way. The people who received the letter from the leader are actually terrified to separate their trash again. It’s this kind of thing that encourages people to sort trash -but discourages them at the same time
So, it reinforces my weird feeling toward Japan that started to build up since I have started learning more about Japan. I come to believe that japan is not as much as a “cool” place I have seen in mangas and animes, but it is this “mysterious zone” you just can’t make sense of it. Japanese have a totally different psyche. Their rationale is different. The more I learn about Japan, the more I am amazed and terrified – in part because the Japanese are just psychologically scary. They come to you in a non-violent way, with their mildly soft-spoken personality, but they chew you in pieces. Not literally “chew,” but you know what I mean. Godzilla – maybe. (But the Japanese do look so much prettier than Godzilla, don’t get me wrong.)
Now, there’s something I want to express, as a spin off of this unique culture. I think that’s an interesting characteristic of the Japanese. And to cite and example, I want to talk a little about the Yasukuni shrine. The fact that it’s such a controversial place to visit for many Asians, but is still visited by some of the Japanese Prime Minister and civilians, is interesting. It’s not that the Japanese are honouring people who were engaged in WWII and might have committed severe war crimes, or saying that the war has ended, we lost, I’m sorry, but your life was wasted. That’s not the case at all. The Japanese logic is totally different. They visited the shrine because it reminds them of war that these people have lost their lives in, and that war like that should never happen again so more people won’t lose their lives for war.
So, just to come back on the recycling topic. A lot of people have commented that it wouldn’t work in their countries – including me. It’s to complicated, tedious, takes too much time, and that means the recycling program like this discourages people to recycling. Plus, the creepy guy who knows who sort their trash right and who don’t is another factor adding to that argument. Basically, when you think of recycling program, try to make it easy because more people will do it.
Apparently, that’s not the Japanese rationale. For them, this is the way it should be – and you will do it – otherwise you will face a psychological harassment from your community leader. You will be embarrassed for life. You don’t want that. You’ll sort your trash. And you will sort it right!
It’s nice to see that Japan does a good job focusing on recycling. I’ll agree with Kari and Jonathan that the separate trash cans in Japan are a bit confusing and a bit tedious to use. Still, I think that it is worth it to at least make a little bit of effort to recycle.
A lot of people have said that this recycling program wouldn’t work in the United States, and I slightly disagree. I think that if we all of a sudden just got the separate trash bins at all public places, then yes, people would be surprised and unhappy. But slowly easing into recycling would work. In Portland, there are quite a few trash pickup days. Twice a month you put glass and plastics in certain color bins and the recycling companies come around and pick them up. Once monthly, you can dispose of your lawn clippings in another bin that is specially designed to hold lawn waste. And all of these recycling bins must be lined up along the road in a certain way so that the trucks can come by and pick them up without having to have people pick up the cans physically.
When I first saw this in Oregon, I was very surprised that people actually recycled like this. I thought it was very confusing, and quite tedious. By the time I came back to college, though, I had the hang of it, and it seemed much more of a good idea than a burden. The same thing happened in Japan; at first, I found the trashcans to be tedious, but after a while I adapted and actually grew fond of the odd trash disposal system. So I think that with a bit of work, this program could be implemented in the United States.
What I question, though, would be the effectiveness of this type of trash disposal in the US. The US is a lot larger than Japan, which makes it quite a bit harder to implement effective recycling programs from scratch. Obviously it can be done since there is a relatively good recycling program already in the Portland area, but it would take a lot of money (government/tax money) to implement it. Maybe the Obama administration can help us get started with this.
Back to Japan, I think that even though the recycling is a nice thought, pollution is faaaaar from being even nearly solved. While the separated trash allows for a lot of recycling, I hope that Japan continues to be an innovator in finding ways to help conserve energy and space while decreasing the amount of damage humans cause on the environment.
I had a comment similar to Hope’s I’m also on the EC for my hall (with Sam, Hope, and Eric) and we have had several problems with getting people to sort their recycling. We have threatened to not pick up some of the bins because they are not sorted correctly, but this has had little effect. I really think it is interesting that Japan has been so successful in getting people to follow this system. As others have said, I think America would have a much larger problem with littering if we instituted this policy. However, I do think people could be eased into it.
I really liked Kari’s comment about her own struggles with this system in Japan. I do imagine that it could be a bit of a struggle to have to sort what you have with you in order to put it in the right bins (especially when you could be in trouble for not sorting your items correctly. I’m not sure I could always sort out the “burnable” items from the “unburnable” item in every case.
I found the News York Times article to be extremely interesting. especially when the woman was decided to take her garbage to her husband’s work for disposal because she got in trouble for using a pen that was too thin to make her number on the bags of garbage. I feel like this would not be a concern for people in America. They feel like putting their garbage out is good enough to help the pollution problem. This relates to what Hope was saying about people not wanting to sort that recycling because it was good enough that they set it out for pick up. People in America would have to be eased into a program like this. Otherwise, we are too lazy to actually follow this kind of garbagr collection system.
For me, to sort garbage into only three categories for recycling purpose is already tedious and sometimes troublesome. I cannot imagine how the Japanese citizens do this; they have to not only purchased special garbage bags for this, but also follow the detailed rules and procedures, I am startled with their patience and responsibility. Perhaps, the concept of “Giri” plays a very influential role in the Japanese society. From the article I read about “Giri”, my first impression was if the world practices “Giri”, we will be living in a perfect and peaceful world. Of course, the concept of “Giri” is not easy to apply in today’s world. People are impossible to be 100% sincere and purely unselfish. However, some of the examples mentioned in “Giri” sound familiar to me. My mum was asked to contribute some donation every year for the neighborhood event, no doubt at times, she wish to not contribute anything, but when she think about her responsibility of being part of the neighborhood, she has to be involved in this event. Also, the example of “giri” concerned with moral indebtedness, I actually know a person who repaid the moral indebtedness higher than the actual value to the person who helped him. There was once I questioned the person about this, and he told me that “you can never afford to repay a help received by others.” Well, back to the garbage issue, I think that Japanese citizens (mostly) have the sense of “giri” towards community which includes the environment. Therefore, they are willing to follow the tedious rules and procedures in garbage disposal. Again, if everyone in the world practices this, I believe that we will be living in a greener earth.
I knew that Japan was a very clean country based on my experience visiting there but I was shocked to see recycling for 34 different bins. I never knew that they went to such a great extent. It has both positive and negative outcomes depending on your point of view. I think that it’s great for the environment and getting the most that Japan can out of garbage and recycling. It makes as the BBC video article said people more conscious about being less wasteful. On the other hand it would take a lot of time and effort to have to go to these recycling centers and separate everything. The Japanese have a shame society that makes people feel obligated to do this tedious recycling. This concept of Giri makes the Japanese feel as they must do this, which is also helped along with other members of the community making sure the rules are enforced.
In America recycling is a different story. We are just now getting to the point where more people are concerned and want to make a difference. The concept they have in Japan with recycling to such a great extent I believe would not work right away in the U.S. Some people currently don’t recycle never mind having to take the time to separate into 34 different bins. It would be great if that could work here in the U.S. but it would be a slow change over a long period of time. American are lazy and don’t want to do more work than necessary. Also they want things done “right this instance” which wouldn’t work with this recycling plan.
I think that it is great that the Japanese are doing this program. It makes sense and really could affect making a difference an easier thing to do. However I can see how this could be confusing and difficult at first.
In my opinion, Japanese and Chinese culture are very similar. The concepts of giri (義理) and seken-tei (世間体) do not sound alien to me. However, I find it hard to explain to friends who were brought up under the Western culture as most of my friends who do not understand that may find giri an unnecessary or extra effort.
For example, Mr. A and Mr. B are friends, but not close friends. Mr. B is in France. Mr. A informed Mr. B that he is going to France a few days and would like to meet Mr. B up. Although Mr. B would not like to entertain visitors to his house, Mr. B would still offer Mr. A to have a short stay or a dinner in his house, wishing that Mr. A would reject the offer. Why would Mr. B do that in the first place? The reason is that Mr. B wish to sound friendly and welcoming. If Mr. B never invite Mr. A to any sorts of activities or does not entertain Mr. A at all, Mr. B would be seen as cruel or realistic or have no sense of humanity. The pressure of maintaining good image is crucial in Eastern culture. If one has a good image, people would respect that person more. This is a form of giri.
However, giri is less understood by the western world. If a person does not like something, he or she would say it out straight away or suggest negotiation to reach agreement. Confrontation and negotiation are seen as violent, demanding, realistic or pushy in eastern culture that may hurt relationships or destroy the atmosphere of unity. Usually, giving way or delaying the matter would be the solution.
Asian people are sometimes viewed as shy in the public because they would not want to do something that would bring attention to them, make people feel uncomfortable or embarrass themselves in front of the crowd. The concept of seken tei is strong in eastern culture to maintain peace and harmony in the society.
For instance, a child, being raised under eastern culture, is regularly taught about shame. If the child cries in the public, the parents would say things like,”Those people are looking at you, aren’t you ashamed? Other kids are not crying, but only you are crying, aren’t you ashamed? You are bothering other people and that Uncle is staring at you, aren’t you ashamed?” The idea of shamefulness and humility is inculcated in the child’s mind since very young of age.
On the other hand, a child, being raised under western culture, is regularly taught on how to behave. If the child cries in the public, the parents would say, “Can you please behave yourself? You are not suppose to do this and that. Please behave like a good child. No gifts for you from Santa…..” It is obvious to tell the difference that the element of shame is less emphasized in the western culture.
Therefore, I think the pressure of sorting garbage in Japan is associated with giri, which is closely knitted with the face-saving phenomenon. People wish to do the right thing and be respected within the community.
The mindset that Japan has on waste management is great in my opinion. The Japanese understand the responsibilities that come with stewardship over the land they live in. If we as people are going to live within nature then we have to take better care of the environment and I believe that taking care of our waste is an important step towards that.
The only problem I have with the mayor of Kamikatsu’s call to action is how extensive his program is. This program would be incredibly difficult to administer in a country like the United States. Here in the U.S. most people don’t recycle at all, let alone separate their waste into 34 different categories. The population wouldn’t take kindly to such a shift in waste disposal.
In the event that the U.S. does make a gradual shift into this program, there will still be much more difficulty with the regulation of it. The reason being that in America, there is no seken-tei or giri, at least not in the same sense.
Yes many people in America care about their social appearances, but even then there is the lack of “shame” that people in Japan feel. If you ask a lot of people here, many of them will probably not be able to tell you of too many instances that they have ever felt shame before. This is because here we are not quite as tied to traditions. This could be a result of the diversity of mentalities that people in America have.
I believe the system can be applied here, but there will be a very long trial and error period. On a larger scale, this program could lead to enormous cuts in the amount of waste that people use.