Why Japan’s Cities Are So Clean

Some recent takeaways from my visit to Tokyo and Osaka

Shinagawa Station in Toyko, with no trash in sight

I recently visited Japan for a week and found the cities so incredibly clean, commensurate with some of the cities I’d visited in Europe, but supporting much larger population bases.

Stockholm was one of the cleanest cities I’d visited, but with a population of just under 1 million, it doesn’t compare with another city I visited that was immaculate, Tokyo, a city with 14 times as many people.

Kyoto, the ninth largest city in Japan, and Osaka, the third largest city, were also very clean. Here are the reasons I think these cities are so clean:

• The homeless population is very small (percentage-wise)
• There are no public trashcans
• There are tons of public restrooms
• Respectful people

And why does cleanliness matter? Beyond promoting healthiness, it makes the city a place worth going to. All cities should strive to be as clean as the cities in Japan.

Small Homeless Populations

There are some more nuanced reasons that Japan’s homeless population is small (for example, not very many refugees compared with countries like Germany), but I’ll focus on the big picture here.