Shibuya - on-the-spot fines for littering
Do you see much litter around your neighbourhood? Shibuya, one of the busiest places in Tokyo, has just introduced an on-the-spot fine of 2,000 Yen to people caught littering. Will it make a difference?
The expression on-the-spot is a useful one from this article.
It means that some action takes place at that exact time, in that exact location. It’s hypenated here to make it into an adjective. The usual phrase is without hypens, and so you will also see it like this - on the spot.
Littering is something that most people don’t do and most people don’t like. Let’s hope the on-the-spot fines help clean up Shibuya!
Jamie
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00:00:00 - Hello, it's Friday the 12th of June. I'm Jamie back with you with another episode of Wake Up to English.
00:00:08 - Today I covered an article from Mainichi about littering in Shibuya. It's going to be a fine for those who break the rules.
00:00:15 - By the way, if you head to my website and look on the podcast blog, I've put the transcript and a bit of extra information on there from the last episode. I'm planning to do it for this one too, so it's a good place to listen and practice more if you want.
00:00:32 - Anyway, let's get into today's episode. Here we go.
00:00:36 - Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Wake Up to English. And today for Friday's episode, I thought I would spend a bit more time with the Mainichi because there's a really interesting article related to litter, and it's something that I'm not such a big fan of. I know that many people are not.
00:00:59 - So the headline here is: Tokyo Shibuya begins ¥2000 on the spot fine for littering.
00:01:03 - Now, already we've got this nice little phrase "on the spot." It's kind of hyphenated to make it one word almost — on the spot. Fine meaning that you can be fined on the spot, meaning in that moment, not later. So at that time, on the spot.
00:01:24 - OK, so we're already off to a good start of all looking at this picture. Yeah. That's not something that we want to see, is it? You can see litter.
00:01:35 - And apparently it's around Shibuya station, photographed by a ward official. Make it bigger and larger. Look at that. Yeah. It's not nice. It's not what you want to see, is it? In the morning.
00:01:47 - OK, let me read a bit of this. Tokyo beginning June the 1st. So this has already been implemented.
00:01:54 - Anyone caught littering in Tokyo Shibuya Ward could be hit with an on the spot fine of ¥2000. So this is roughly about thirteen U.S. dollars by the ward government.
00:02:07 - Convenience stores, take away restaurants, and vending machine operators will also face a ¥50,000, about 310 U.S. dollars fine if they fail to install trash cans.
00:02:21 - This is interesting because when I was in Japan, I noticed that some places they removed the trash cans, or at least you would expect there to be a trash can, but there was nothing there.
00:02:36 - So it seems like, yeah, convenience stores, restaurants, vending machine operators will also have to provide the trash cans.
00:02:44 - The measure follows a revision to a related ordinance in December last year. According to the ward, the ban on littering applies across all areas under its jurisdiction, including private property.
00:03:01 - Ward patrol officers will collect the fine, which must be paid on the spot. Cashless payment will also be accepted.
00:03:08 - Isn't that funny? It shows what era we're living through that. Yeah, some people might not have cash, so if they're going to be fined, cashless is necessary.
00:03:19 - For businesses such as convenience stores, fines will be imposed if they do not improve after receiving advisories and public disclosure.
00:03:29 - Vending machines throughout the ward are also covered by the new fine system, while food and beverage outlets are targeted in the entertainment areas of Shibuya, Harajuku and Ebisu, where littering is common.
00:03:46 - I am curious when this problem started. Did it start a long time ago? Does it coincide with this over-tourism that we often hear about? Because by nature, by character, Japanese people don't typically litter. Although I guess it depends on the area.
00:04:02 - If you get, you know, highly concentrated city centres, groups of people, drunk people, indeed, you're going to find some trash.
00:04:16 - The ordinance took effect on April the 1st and fines began to be collected on June the 1st.
00:04:21 - The ward had already introduced fines for smoking on the streets and up to about 50 ward patrol officers and others make rounds in the area around the clock every day, so it does sound like they're enforcing it, which is a good thing.
00:04:36 - Up to about 50. I wonder what the usual number is. That's a lot of people dedicated to this, although if they're finding people regularly, I guess it's a good money maker, frankly speaking.
00:04:50 - The ward is urging stores to take responsibility for disposing of waste generated by their products.
00:04:56 - Yeah, this is the point, isn't it? And if they do produce things and then people use it and then they don't have anywhere to dispose of it immediately, some of the responsibility can fall onto the stores.
00:05:08 - I think while consumers are asked to either take the trash home or dispose of it at the place of purchase. That would be ideal.
00:05:15 - You buy something, eat it, drink it, whatever, dispose of it there. When they've taken away the trash can and you have to take it home. It's not the end of the world, is it? But it's harder.
00:05:30 - Again, all this being said, it's never the right thing to do to throw litter on the ground.
00:05:35 - A 2025 ward survey showed high rates of trash cans available at fast food outlets, 97% and cafes, 80%, but only about half of take away drink shops 47%. Oh dear, that's very low, isn't it?
00:05:54 - And food trucks, 50% had such disposal areas. You know, that's actually a little bit more annoying than the other things because a food truck, you're supposed to eat it nearby. And then what? Throw the trash where?
00:06:12 - So I think that one is, yeah, maybe it's harder for them to deal with the trash, but still, they should just have a huge can, right?
00:06:29 - OK. It says patrol officers issued an average of 345 warnings per month.
00:06:36 - I wonder how often they use their discretion. What I mean is their own personal, you know, responsibility, common sense, their discretion to not fine people.
00:06:54 - Does it have to be clear, intentional littering or if somebody drops something? I've never been in trouble with that, but I heard that sometimes people drop something by accident, but they still get blamed equally, which seems a bit unfair to me.
00:07:12 - Littering has long been a challenge in Shibuya, a major destination for visitors from Japan and abroad.
00:07:20 - Although the ward introduced a severe criminal fine for littering under its "Let's All Create Clean Shibuya" ordinance in 1997. According to the ward, there has almost been... sorry, excuse me, there has been almost no record of the fines being applied.
00:07:37 - So for about 20 years there seems to have been... wait, is that 20 or 30 years? Oh dear, time's flying.
00:07:47 - There seems to have been something for a long time, but nothing, no action was taken. The system was changed to an administrative fine collected by the ward to make enforcement more effective.
00:07:55 - The ward says about 27,000 penalties were imposed last fiscal year for smoking on the streets under the new system.
00:08:06 - I did sometimes see people smoking even in areas that said no smoking on the street. So I never really thought that people would be fined. Certainly I saw a lot of tourists smoking on the street.
00:08:19 - So it's that question of how strictly to impose something. But I guess if you want to stop people doing something, you have to get strict.
00:08:31 - Officials say relying solely on public awareness campaigns and patrol guidance is no longer sufficient to curb littering. Meaning to stop it, to reduce it, signalling its intention to deal with the issues strictly.
00:08:45 - OK, well that's the end of the article.
00:08:49 - It's not a problem I often saw. I used to live in Osaka and I rarely saw this kind of thing. Well, it makes you wonder. Early morning city centre, perhaps? These things are there, but they're cleaned up before most people get to work anyway.
00:09:06 - Anything that can reduce litter is a good thing. I wonder about the amount ¥2000. Is it enough to be serious, to be strict, as they say?
00:09:15 - I wonder if people will complain if they're tourists, if they'll disagree with it. And then what happens? You know, because it's not the police that's doing it — it seems like it's the ward officials. I guess they might give up if the tourist is too insistent on not paying.
00:09:37 - OK, but certainly "on the spot" is a useful phrase here. So try to remember that.
00:09:41 - And yeah, well, that's about all from me today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. I'll next be with you on Monday. So enjoy your weekend and see you next time.
00:09:54 - Thank you for listening. Take care. Bye bye.
Litter around Shibuya Station photographed by a ward official is seen in this picture. (Image courtesy of the Shibuya Ward Office)