Suitcases are frequently illegally abandoned on the streets of Tokyo, Japan, and Toshima District takes countermeasures

Suitcases have been illegally abandoned on the streets and parks of Tokyo, Japan recently, especially around Ikebukuro Station where there are many B&Bs and restaurants. The Toshima District Office has cooperated with suitcase recycling companies to carry out relevant measures and calls on the public to dispose of them properly.

Japan's "Yomiuri Shimbun" reported that on September 15, a suitcase was found abandoned on the roadside in front of a garbage collection point in Ikebukuro Honmachi, Toshima District, Tokyo. The district office put up a warning sticker and temporarily left the suitcase where it was, but after a week it was still unclaimed, so it had to be recycled as large garbage.

The report pointed out that it is generally believed that foreign tourists may have purchased new suitcases and then discarded the original suitcases as waste.

A 38-year-old woman who lives nearby said: "After the number of B&Bs increased in the past few years, I have seen more than 50 suitcases abandoned on the roadside. I have also seen foreigners putting suitcases there. I hope everyone will abide by the regulations."

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government stated that the number of foreign tourists visiting Tokyo last year increased by 16% compared with the previous year, reaching approximately 28.65 million people, a record high. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Survey on Behavioral Characteristics of Foreign Visitors" of the same year showed that 1 in every 4 foreign tourists had visited Ikebukuro.

Toshima Ward said that as the number of foreign tourists increases, the number of abandoned suitcases has also increased. Last fiscal year, a total of about 290 abandoned suitcases were found in city roads, parks, garbage collection points and other places. Among them, the most common ones were around Ikebukuro Station, where B&Bs and restaurants gather. Some tourists also left suitcases directly at accommodation facilities.

Some people believe that some foreign tourists have been affected by the depreciation of the yen and have switched to cheap and durable Japanese luggage. Or they have purchased too many souvenirs that cannot fit in their original suitcases, so they buy larger suitcases and then throw away the unnecessary suitcases.

Many local residents called the police because they felt "they didn't know what was inside, it was scary." "Heavy suitcases sometimes have to be accompanied by the police to confirm the contents, which is quite labor-intensive to handle," said Mitsuhiro Takasan, director of the Toshima Cleaning Office.

According to Toshima City regulations, unwanted suitcases must be affixed with a 400 yen large garbage disposal coupon sold at convenience stores and then handed over to the ward office for recycling. However, in principle, this system only applies to residents of the ward, and foreign tourists and other people must entrust operators to handle it individually. If it is illegally abandoned, the taxes paid by district residents will ultimately bear the cost of removal and processing.

Therefore, in July this year, Toshima City signed a cooperation agreement with MY SUITCASE and "Nippon Matsuri", a brand of Cultures Japan, which provides acquisition services.

The district office produced flyers introducing the services and contact information of the two companies in English, Chinese, Korean and other languages, and distributed them to accommodation facilities, mass merchandisers and other places in the district.

MY SUITCASE provides a luggage recycling service at the store; Nippon Toyo will send staff to the accommodation facilities and charges 2,500 yen per luggage for recycling.

In addition, Toshima City also uses large electronic signboards at Ikebukuro West Exit Park and the "Toshima City Resident Center" to promote in multiple languages ​​not to illegally abandon luggage.

Toshima City plans to enact an ordinance with penalties within this fiscal year and hopes to implement it from the next fiscal year.

Kenji Sawada, head of the Toshima City Environmental Policy Section, said: "We hope to further strengthen relevant measures with the help of private sector forces."

Such cases of suitcases being abandoned occur one after another in other areas of Tokyo.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Inspection and Guidance Division stated that since April this year, excluding island areas, the number of suitcases recovered on metropolitan roads (roads under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government) has reached 50 as of the 16th of last month, especially in places such as Shinjuku and Asakusa.

Shinjuku City collected about 30 suitcases abandoned on city roads last fiscal year. The Shinjuku Cleaning Office stated that it has also discovered that suitcases have been illegally abandoned around B&Bs, and therefore reminds B&B operators that if travelers have unnecessary suitcases, they should dispose of them as "commercial garbage."

Daisuke Abe, a professor of urban planning at Ryukoku University who is familiar with the issue of tourism pollution, said: "For tourists whose stay is limited, if they don't know how to dispose of it, or if it is troublesome to dispose of it, it will be difficult to prompt them to take appropriate disposal actions."