Where to throw away trash in Japan
You have a coffee cup, a wrapper or an empty bottle, and there is no bin. This is the whole answer: where bins actually are, in the order you should try them, what each one takes, what is against the rules, and the four words of Japanese that get you through it. Everything below is counted from a map of 4,443 usable public bins on record across Japan, 537 of them checked on the ground.
The short version
- Carry a small bag. Residents do. Empty it at the next station or your hotel.
- Train stations have bins on platforms and concourses, inside the ticket gates. The Tokyo subway is the exception (none since 2022).
- Convenience stores keep a bin for customers. Buy a drink and it is uncontroversial; carrying in a bag of outside rubbish is not.
- The box beside a vending machine takes bottles and cans only. Nothing else, ever.
- Your hotel takes everything. Loose bottles in a separate bag are appreciated.
- Never use the caged collection point on a residential street, leave things beside a full bin, or drop anything on shrine or temple grounds.
Why there are so few bins, and why nobody minds
Public bins were pulled from Japanese stations and streets after the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack, and most never came back; removals continued, with Tokyo Metro and Toei taking the bins out of every one of their stations in 2022 and most convenience-store ashtrays disappearing with the 2020 smoking rules. What replaced them is a set of habits rather than infrastructure: people carry rubbish home, shops handle their own customers' waste, and drink containers go back beside the machine they came from. It works beautifully if you grew up inside it. If you arrived on Tuesday with a suitcase, nobody has explained it, which is the only reason this page exists.
The scale, counted rather than guessed: 4,443 usable public bins on record in the whole country, after removing 2,746 residential collection points that OpenStreetMap also tags as bins. For comparison the same data holds 33,677 public toilets: about 7.6 toilets for every bin. Japan did not forget public infrastructure; it removed one kind of it.
Where the bins actually are, most reliable first
1. Train stations
The most dependable public bins in Japan. JR and the private railways keep them on platforms and concourses, usually as a bank of slots: paper and general waste, cans and glass, PET bottles. They are inside the ticket gates, so use them before you tap out. Shinkansen cars have a bin in the vestibule at the end of each car. The exception is the Tokyo subway: Tokyo Metro and Toei removed every bin in 2022. Stations with the most checked points on this map right now:
- Odori Station — 14 on record, 14 checked
- Kita-Senju Station — 11 on record, 10 checked
- Mitsukaido Station — 9 on record, 9 checked
- Amanohashidate Station — 8 on record, 8 checked
- Sakurajima Station — 13 on record, 6 checked
- Asakusabashi Station — 9 on record, 6 checked
2. Convenience stores
Every 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson has a bin, and increasingly it is inside the shop next to the counter rather than on the street, precisely because people were bringing in bags of outside rubbish. The rule is simple and the staff will not police it: the bin is for what you bought there. Buy the next drink or onigiri and dispose of the last one. Bottles, cans and general waste are usually separated.
3. The recycling box beside a vending machine
Japan has millions of drink machines and most have a box beside them, put there by the beverage company for its own containers. It takes bottles and cans only. A coffee cup, a wrapper or food waste does not go in it, and stuffing one is the single most visible tourist mistake.
4. Department stores, malls and food halls
Anywhere that sells food to eat on the spot provides a way to dispose of it: the basement food halls of department stores, shopping-mall food courts, station shopping complexes. Look for the tray-return counter. These bins are for that food, not for the day's accumulated rubbish, but nobody checks.
5. Parks, tourist sites, shrines and temples
Inconsistent. Large city parks and some tourist sites keep bins near kiosks; shrines and temples almost never do and expect you to take everything away, including the wrappers from the approach-street food stalls (eat at the stall and hand the wrapper back). Points that someone has recorded are on the map; the absence of a pin usually means the absence of a bin.
6. Your hotel
The backstop. Hotels sort everything themselves. If you are in an apartment or Airbnb, the building's own collection days, bag colours and sorting rules apply and the host's instructions are the law: a bag put out on the wrong day is refused and left on the step with a sticker.
What the bins on this map accept
Every point records what it takes. Across the 4,443 usable bins on record:
| Accepts | Bins |
|---|---|
| General | 3,849 |
| Can | 1,480 |
| Pet Bottle | 1,465 |
| Glass | 982 |
| Other | 368 |
| Food | 5 |
Food waste is the rare one. A bin that accepts it is nearly always inside a food hall or attached to a shop, which is why the coffee cup is the hard case and the PET bottle is the easy one.
Sorting, in the thirty seconds you have
- Bottles and cans always go separately: the vending-machine box, or the round-holed slot on a station bin. Empty them first.
- PET bottles have their own slot in stations and shops. Some bins ask for the cap and label separately; if there is a small cap slot, use it.
- Paper, wrappers and cups are "burnable" general waste (燃えるゴミ, moeru gomi) almost everywhere.
- Plastic packaging is where cities differ: some collect it separately, some burn it. On a public bin, follow the pictogram; when in doubt it goes with general waste.
- Food waste is burnable, but few public bins accept it. Finish it at the shop or carry it to the hotel.
- Batteries, electronics, aerosol cans, umbrellas never go in a public bin. Hotels will take small items; large ones go back in your suitcase or to a shop that sells the same thing.
What is actually against the rules
Dropping rubbish anywhere but a proper disposal route is illegal under the national Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act, whose penalties for illegal dumping reach five years in prison or a fine of up to ten million yen; those are aimed at trucks in the mountains, not tourists. Day-to-day littering is covered by city and ward ordinances, which ban dropping rubbish and smoking on the street in designated zones and back it with on-the-spot fines of a few thousand yen (Chiyoda ward in Tokyo charges 2,000 yen). Enforcement is rare because almost nobody litters. The three things that genuinely offend: using a residential collection cage, leaving a bag beside a full bin, and rubbish on shrine or temple grounds.
The Japanese you need
- ゴミ箱はどこですか？ Gomibako wa doko desu ka? — Where is a trash can?
- これを捨ててもいいですか？ Kore o sutete mo ii desu ka? — May I throw this away here?
- ゴミ箱 gomibako — trash can · 捨てる suteru — to throw away · 分別 bunbetsu — sorting
- 燃えるゴミ moeru gomi — burnable · 燃えないゴミ moenai gomi — non-burnable
- 缶 kan — cans · 瓶 bin — glass bottles · ペットボトル petto botoru — PET bottles · 紙 kami — paper
The app carries the same phrases in eight languages, with the Japanese in large type to show a shop assistant.
The other three things you will look for
The same map, checked the same way, also holds 33,677 public toilets, 1,030 smoking areas and 8,565 drinking-water points. Toilets matter twice: a public toilet almost always has a bin inside, so when no checked bin is close the app points you at the nearest toilet instead.
Questions people ask before they find this page
- Where can I throw away trash in Japan?
- In order of reliability: a train station (bins on platforms and concourses, inside the ticket gates), a convenience store where you buy something, the recycling box beside a vending machine for bottles and cans only, and your hotel. Public street bins are rare: this map has 4,443 usable ones on record for the whole country and 537 checked on the ground. The default is to carry a small bag and empty it at the next station or your hotel; that is what residents do too.
- What do I do with trash in my hotel in Japan?
- Leave it in the room bin or hand it to the front desk; hotels sort it themselves and never object. Loose bottles and cans are appreciated in a separate bag. In an apartment or Airbnb the host's house rules apply: the building has fixed collection days and its own bag and sorting rules, and a bag left out on the wrong day or in the wrong bag will be refused, so photograph the host's instructions and follow them.
- Is littering illegal in Japan, and what is the fine?
- Yes. The national Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act bans dumping waste anywhere but a proper disposal route; the penalties for illegal dumping reach five years in prison or a fine of up to 10 million yen, aimed at serious cases. Day-to-day littering is handled by city and ward ordinances, which prohibit dropping rubbish and smoking on the street in designated areas and add on-the-spot fines of a few thousand yen, for example 2,000 yen in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward. Enforcement is light because almost nobody litters.
- How do you say trash can in Japanese?
- Gomibako, written ゴミ箱 or ごみ箱. To ask where one is: Gomibako wa doko desu ka? (ゴミ箱はどこですか). To ask whether you may use a bin: Kore o sutete mo ii desu ka? (これを捨ててもいいですか, may I throw this away here?). Other words on the bins themselves: moeru gomi 燃えるゴミ burnable, moenai gomi 燃えないゴミ non-burnable, kan 缶 cans, bin 瓶 glass bottles, petto botoru ペットボトル PET bottles, and bunbetsu 分別 sorting.
- Do Japanese train stations have trash cans?
- Most JR and private railway stations do, on platforms and concourses inside the ticket gates, usually as a set of slots for paper and general waste, cans and PET bottles. The exception is the Tokyo subway: Tokyo Metro and Toei removed the bins from every one of their stations in 2022. This site keeps pages for 108 stations with disposal points nearby, ranked by how many have been checked, and each point says whether it is inside or outside the gates.
- What should I do if I cannot find a trash can in Japan?
- Carry it. A small plastic bag in your day bag is the normal Japanese solution, and nobody will think it odd. Then empty it at the next station, at a convenience store when you buy the next drink, or at your hotel. Never leave rubbish beside a full bin, in a residential collection cage, or on a shrine or temple ground; those are the three things that do offend. If the map shows no checked bin nearby, it falls back to the nearest public toilet, which almost always has a bin inside.
- Are there trash cans in Tokyo?
- Fewer than in any other capital, but yes. This map holds 662 usable public bins on record in Tokyo, 131 of them checked on the ground within the last 18 months, concentrated at JR stations, shopping districts such as Shibuya and Shinjuku, and department stores. The subway has none since 2022. Convenience stores keep bins for customers, and many now place them inside the shop by the counter rather than on the street.
- Can I throw away trash at a temple, shrine or park in Japan?
- Usually not. Shrines and temples rarely provide bins and expect visitors to take everything away, including food wrappers from the approach street stalls; eat there and hand the wrapper back to the stall. Large city parks and tourist sites sometimes have bins near the kiosks, and those are on this map when someone has recorded them, but do not count on it. Carry a bag and empty it at the station on the way back.
Where these numbers come from
Point data is © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), harvested through the Overpass API and rebuilt on 2026-09-12; every point keeps its OSM id. Ground checks come from travellers using the app and from installations announced by the operators themselves. Residential collection points are removed from every count. How the four confidence levels work · Japan by the numbers · every question this site answers.