{"id":40896,"date":"2026-04-01T09:53:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=40896"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:53:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:53:35","slug":"japans-shibuya-to-fine-litterbugs-on-the-spot-from-june-as-visitor-numbers-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=40896","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Shibuya to fine litterbugs on the spot from June as visitor numbers surge"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Tokyo\u2019s Shibuya ward \u2013 home to the famous scramble crossing and one of the Japanese<\/span> capital\u2019s busiest shopping and nightlife districts \u2013 is abandoning its long-standing policy of asking people to take their rubbish home.<\/div>\n

Instead, it is turning to on-the-spot fines as visitor numbers surge and litter piles up.<\/p>\n

Under a new campaign branded \u201cIf you throw trash, you lose cash\u201d, anyone caught dropping rubbish will be fined 2,000 yen (US$12.50), with enforcement starting on June 1 after a grace period.<\/p>\n

The move marks a shift from a policy introduced around 2013, when the ward removed public bins because they were overwhelmed and encouraged people to dispose of waste responsibly themselves.<\/p>\n

A decade on, officials say that approach has failed to keep streets clean amid a sharp rise in footfall, including inbound tourists, in one of Tokyo\u2019s busiest commercial and entertainment districts.<\/p>\n

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\"Locals<\/div>
Locals and foreign tourists alike crowd the streets to watch dancing and a drum performance during the Shibuya Bon Odori Festival in August 2025. Photo: Jiji Press\/AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The revised Ordinance for Creating a Clean Shibuya Together is a \u201clandmark initiative\u201d that aims to address the \u201cgrowing littering problem associated with the sharp increase in visitors, including inbound foreign tourists\u201d, city officials say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Tokyo\u2019s Shibuya ward \u2013 home to the famous scramble crossing and one of the Japanese capital\u2019s busiest shopping and nightlife districts \u2013 is abandoning its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[7393,5422,6209,19446,5022,14327,1252,3985,1624],"class_list":["post-40896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-fine","tag-japans","tag-june","tag-litterbugs","tag-numbers","tag-shibuya","tag-spot","tag-surge","tag-visitor","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}