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Japan and the philosophy of garbage

By Tom Aaron

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 14Apr2009
Word count: 583
Viewed: 446 time(s)

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Fred and I were sitting on the bullet train, speeding across Japan, going to yet another meeting. We glanced out the window as usual, making sure that we couldn't see Mt. Fuji. We knew it was there and we were 99.99% sure that we would not be able to see it. Still, we looked just the same. Indeed, obscured by clouds, pollution or both, we couldn't see it. I balled up my trash from my 7-11 salmon rice ball, three tangerines, and my Crunky chocolate bar, stuffing it into the 7-11 bag and commented, "I do miss trash cans."

I should have known better than to make such a comment around Fred. After 9-11, all the garbage cans on the bullet trains were taped shut and people had to take their garbage off the train with them, or leave it on the train. Fred immediately responded, "You know, trains in Japan were always one place that you could be sure of finding a garbage can. Where can we be sure of finding garbage cans? Certainly not on the street and certainly not in parks. Did I ever tell you about Mike and his garbage can inquiry?"

I nodded my head, but my nod was in vain. Fred started to tell me all about Mike and his garbage, again, "Mike made the foolish mistake of replying to one of those let's ask the foreign residents for their feedback about life in Japan inquiries. Mike was tired of taking his son to the park, tired of not finding any garbage cans, and tired of seeing all the trash scattered around. Mike thought that if there were trash cans, people would use them. Mike believed that trash cans were an obvious municipal service. So, he replied to that effect. Would you believe that two guys from city hall went all the way out to Mike's house to explain why there were no trash cans in the park? They explained that trash cans would be an added expense that the city did not want to pay for, which was why they had the take your garbage home with you approach. When Mike pointed out that the take your garbage home approach was not working and people were just dumping their trash in the park, what do you think they said?"

I started to reply, but Fred cut me off, "They explained that it was an added expense that the city did not want to pay for, which was why they had the take your garbage home with you approach. Yes, they said the exact same thing all over again. So Mike is wondering why he ever gave feedback in the first place. Even more, he is wondering why they even asked for feedback."

Fred went on, but I just tuned him out, thinking that we certainly did not have a meeting of the minds here. Mike wanted garbage cans in the public parks. He thought this was a basic municipal service. He thought providing feedback might lead to improvement. Little did he know that city hall was not really open to change. There was one way to do things - the city hall way. City hall was open to explaining what they were doing. They thought that explaining how they did things would help people to understand what was going on. They thought that communication would help to reduce problems. They did not have a clue that people providing feedback expected change.

Mike never gave any feedback again.

Aaron Language Services (http://www.aaronlanguage.com/ ) provides translation, proofreading, and online English coaching to a primarily Japanese client base.

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