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Roam
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
Posts: 24
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 Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 3:51 pm Post subject: I have to sign my garbage! |
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This week I was informed by my employer that the municipality in which I live insists that residents sign the garbage bags that they leave out. I am required to sign my garbage bags in future, or they may not be collected. Imagine the lawsuits back home...  I don't think I will comply with this. The privacy issues here seem a little too extreme. |
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Sheep-Goats
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Posts: 527
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't think it's a privacy issue. I think its a waste-reduction issue, meant to keep individuals from creating more than their fair share of the trash that Japan probably has to bribe some thrid world island nation to bury. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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Learn the kanji for Shotaro Watanabe and use your neighbour's address.
Problem solved. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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Heck, if I have to sign a guest book at a restaurant, put my name on a membership card, or give a name to a cab company dispatcher, my name is Yamaguchi. It's very simple to write and nobody has to fret about how to transliterate my name into katakana.
And no, it's not my real name. |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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| TokyoLiz wrote: |
Heck, if I have to sign a guest book at a restaurant, put my name on a membership card, or give a name to a cab company dispatcher, my name is Yamaguchi. It's very simple to write and nobody has to fret about how to transliterate my name into katakana.
And no, it's not my real name. |
Yamaguchi - interesting choice, being that Yamaguchi Gumi is the largest clan of Yakuza. One of my students' last name was Yamaguchi, and I joked about her connection to the Yakuza, and she informed me she hears that from almost every classmate she has.
The point of signing your garbage has nothing to do with privacy. Japan has extremely strict recycling laws (seperate the label and cap from PET bottles and discard all of them seperately). The point of having your name on there is so that if they find you are not recycling properly you will be reprimanded and fined. |
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rcn
Joined: 11 Feb 2003
Posts: 38
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:50 am Post subject: |
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It's not a privacy issue at all. Some municipalities are stricter than others when it comes to recycling and putting your garbage out ONLY on designated days(could you imagine the smell if people put out the trash 2 or 3 days before it's collected?).
When I lived in Yokohama I saw a building manager and a tenant open and search a garbage bag that was put out on the wrong day. They were obviously looking for clues that would lead them to the owner!
The apt you live in should have a schedule for garbage and days for recycling cans, plastic, etc. If you can't find this ask somebody at the local city ward office of your employer. |
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Roam
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:36 am Post subject: |
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| The issue isn't how strict the recycling rules are in Japan. That is to be applauded. The issue is assigning ownership to discarded items, which assigns ownership to purchased items, which is nobody's mf business. Signing for garbage is absolute insanity. |
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homersimpson
Joined: 14 Feb 2003
Posts: 569
Location: Kagoshima
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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| If you steer clear of the garbage nazis (a.k.a. middle-aged and older housewives) you may be OK. It depends in large part on what prefecture or town you live in. Also, if you live near a large apartment complex you can be assured that the garbage service will take just about anything. So if you live in a town that's anal about trash, find the nearsest apartment complex and ditch your trash around 10:00 p.m. the night before pick-up. |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Roam wrote: |
| The issue isn't how strict the recycling rules are in Japan. That is to be applauded. The issue is assigning ownership to discarded items, which assigns ownership to purchased items, which is nobody's mf business. Signing for garbage is absolute insanity. |
No one cares what you threw away, unless you are breaking Japanese recycling laws. Don't act like everyone wants to rummage through your discarded items. You do, though, have to take responsibility for what you are throwing away and when. Your garbage is still your possession until the city hauls it off to the dump. The same way you can't park illegally, and your car is marked by an identifying license plate number - that is the system they are trying to use. |
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Roam
Joined: 21 Apr 2004
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 1:53 am Post subject: |
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| The last batch of garbage I threw out contained a positive pregnancy test, banking info., some soft core stuff my girfriend and I are into, an information package about the Communist party of Japan, and some things I don't care to mention on this forum, DUE TO PRIVACY CONCERNS! The state is too much with us when we have to assign ownership to our garbage. |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:52 am Post subject: |
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| Roam wrote: |
| The last batch of garbage I threw out contained a positive pregnancy test, banking info., some soft core stuff my girfriend and I are into, an information package about the Communist party of Japan, and some things I don't care to mention on this forum, DUE TO PRIVACY CONCERNS! The state is too much with us when we have to assign ownership to our garbage. |
Like I said, you may be embarassed by what's in your grabage, but no one else cares. All they are concerned with is that you aren't throwing cans out in the trash, that you are separating all of your plastics, and that you are leaving your trash out on designated days. If you are really that concerned with your privacy (symptoms of a conspiracy theorist), burn what you don't want seen - it is legal to burn certain types of trash in Japan. |
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rcn
Joined: 11 Feb 2003
Posts: 38
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:53 am Post subject: |
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| I'm also concerned about privacy too, so before I throw out the trash I always use a shredder for any documents that contain personal info about myself. Just go to Bic or Yodobashi and you can pick one up for a couple thousand yen. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:03 am Post subject: |
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| Nismo wrote: |
If you are really that concerned with your privacy (symptoms of a conspiracy theorist), burn what you don't want seen - it is legal to burn certain types of trash in Japan. |
I think that is beside the point. It is garbage, hence you don't want everyone snooping through your gomi. I get a little annoyed every time I walk down the street to the gomi pile and my neighbours, instead of an ohayo gozaimasu, just stare at my bag of garbage and see if I am throwing the wrong thing out on the wrong day. Don't they have anything better to do?
My city just instituted a new garbage bag rule where we have to buy special bags at 40 yen/each.  |
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jackk
Joined: 11 Feb 2005
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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 im sorry, thats too funny. garbage is big business in japan; this sounds like a perfect opportunity to enter the garbage market by offering your clients the convenience of throwing out unsigned garbage. a small flat fee will be charged for the disposal of thier garbage under your co.`s name.
i couldnt resist this one.. |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:46 pm Post subject: Re: I have to sign my garbage! |
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| Roam wrote: |
| This week I was informed by my employer that the municipality in which I live insists that residents sign the garbage bags that they leave out. I am required to sign my garbage bags in future, or they may not be collected. Imagine the lawsuits back home... I don't think I will comply with this. The privacy issues here seem a little too extreme. |
Warning!!!
System monitor has detected a probable cultural adaptation failure.
Point of imminent return breached.
You have 15 seconds to evacuate. Leave Japan now! Repeat. Leave Japan now!
This language instructor will now self-destruct. |
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