Japan is Remarkably Wasteful

The first thing you undoubtedly saw if you watched any video of the commotion in downtown Tokyo was the overwhelming volume of people. There are over 14 million people living there, thus the city is quite crowded. That leads to a point that you might not have considered. Tokyo is remarkably clean for a city with that many inhabitants.

Unexpectedly, this dates back to the 1995 sarin gas attacks. For fear that they would contain the lethal gas in subsequent attacks, they removed trash cans. As a result, people began to carry their trash with them and dispose of it at work or home. The end result is a spotless metropolis without any trash cans. As a result, it appears that Japan does not squander much. But it is clearly a fantasy. Japan wastes a lot, especially when it comes to food. Due in part to strange notions about food safety and sanitation, the nation discards 620,000 tons of food each year.

There was a glaring lack of food control and sanitation in post-war Japan, which contributed to illness. Although strict criteria were put in place, they were never loosened even after the nation was rebuilt. As a result, there was a very rigid and ordered attitude toward how food should be prepared and eaten. After only one day of being on display, some food will be discarded. In America, packaged foods can last a year on the shelf; in Japan, they are gone in six months.

Regulations are also put in place to stop short orders. Accordingly, if a store requests 100 apples but can only ship 80 of them, the shipper owes the store the money they would have gained from selling the other 20 apples. Producers will grow more than they need to ensure that no order is short in order to make up for this. As a result, there is excess that is thrown away. It's a systematic issue that people are working to fix, but progress is being made slowly.