Beginning March next year, Japan will name and shame those found flouting rules regarding sorting and disposal of garbage. The municipal corporation of the city of Fukushima on Tuesday (Dec 17) passed new regulations under which garbage bags that do not comply with separation rules will be opened to identify violators and if they do not make necessary changes, the names of such businesses and individuals will be made public.

Japan has long been regarded as one of the cleanest countries on the planet, having a strict waste disposal policy. Despite the relative cleanliness, there were around 9,000 cases of non-compliant rubbish in the last year in Fukushima alone, prompting the authorities to take action. Additionally, the city’s amount of daily trash per person in fiscal 2022 was 1.08 kilograms, which is higher than the national average of 880 grams.

“Through this initiative, we hope to somehow correct the current situation of improper garbage disposal. We will work to promote thorough separation of garbage and reduction of waste,” Fukushima Mayor Hiroshi Kohata told the Mainichi.

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Name on municipal website

Notably, the authorities have created a tiered process to ensure that the violators are identified. Currently, garbage collectors slap a yellow “violation sticker” on garbage bags but after revision of policies, municipal workers will put a red “warning sticker” on the bags. If the rubbish remains unsorted for a week, the workers will collect the bags and conduct an inspection to identify violators through mail and other items.

The violators will then be issued a verbal warning, followed by a written advisory, before the last resort: having their names published on the municipal government website.

Currently, more than half of 62 core Japanese cities are conducting garbage bag opening inspections but Fukushima’s local government is the first one to disclose the names of the violators.

“There is nothing illegal about publicising malicious waste generators who do not abide by the rules and do not follow the city’s guidance and advisory,” the authorities said when quizzed about citizens’ privacy violation.

Rubbish collection is taken very seriously in Japan where the government, since the 1990s, have made it a national goal to shift away from landfills, reduce waste and promote recycling. Last year, the city of Chiba introduced an AI assistant that helps residents dispose of their garbage properly.