Why is Japan so clean? (places, culture, travel, compared)

[Cida]

Well, they're big on social responsibility and conformity to group well-being, right?

[Bettafish]

I would not like to live in Japan though.
Too many manners. Some are good, some are unnecessary (IMO). People barely talk to strangers. When they do they keep bowing.

Cultural customs. Motivate urban planning actions. Although, when I see pictures of these Japanese surroundings, the roads really have visual signs of crowds, mess, urban decay, particular types of clutter, and confusion. Fake façade that is pulling off wrong windows of accuracy with immaculate spotless lack of grime. Ambivalent variables with the situation.

[Rocko20]

Japan is a very disciplined shame society, basically don't do anything to bring shame upon yourself, family, and country.

In cultural anthropology, a shame society, also called shame culture or honour-shame culture, is a society in which the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining social order is the inculcation of shame and the complementary threat of ostracism.

The society of traditional Japan was long held to be a good example of one in which shame is the primary agent of social control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_society#Japan

I lived there for 3 years. Their work ethic and discipline is unmatched. They could be a janitor, teacher, taxi driver, accountant, engineer, lawyer, judge, etc. they always did their job to the best of their ability.

There is a reason that small country at one point owned all of South East Asia and parts of Korea and China.

Even with that being said, there are still parts of Roppongi that can get really trashy at night. Which is usually attributed to drunk "gaijin" partying in that area.

[madrone2k]

In the early 70s (prehistory, I know) I took a cultural anthropology course on Japan. Not surprisingly, I can't remember too much detail from it. I do remember learning that they traditionally had a strong focus on cleanliness and avoiding pollution. That's why people were stigmatized if they had occupations related to picking up garbage or handling the dead. Also, toilet facilities were located on the opposite side of a house from where the bath was, if they had one. And also why the emphasis on cleaning one's body before entering a public bath.

Also, remember how they reacted to the first Europeans who arrived in Japan in number. At the time, Europeans didn't bath often and the Japanese were revolted by the stinky, dirty white people. A personal anecdote: a friend who was an ESL teacher traveled in the US and shared a room with a Japanese student. After returning to the hotel, my friend heard a lot of sounds from the bathroom. Turned out, the Japanese guy was thoroughly scrubbing the tub before he would fill the tub with water for his evening bath.

[Gold miner]

Which country is the opposite of Japan in terms of cleanliness? India?

[shubham33]

JAPAN
While Japan has some environmental problems it has yet to thoroughly understand and undertake, such as junk in the Seto Inland Sea, overall, it’s a pretty clean country. The cities in particular are really well looked after. Graffiti is rare, people seldom throw trash on the ground and there are no signs warning of a hefty fine if you do. While not all Japanese people are as pernickety about leading clean and orderly lives like their well-known national Marie Kondo, when it comes to public cleanliness, Japanese cities regularly shine.
1. No public trash cans? No problem!
One of the first things you may notice when the set foot in the country is that there are few public junk bins once you leave the train station. In my country, I’m pretty sure the reason we have so many public garbage cans is to discourage people from just throwing stuff on the ground.
2. Tidy garbage
One reason you receive a bag at a convenience store even when you order just one or two items is that the bag helps you keep everything in one place, even after the contents of the bag become garbage.
3. Private homes and businesses are predictable to keep their areas clean
Why would you need street cleaners when you have a potentially endless source of residents to pool from in the buildings along the walkway? Every morning you’ll find various people in Japan sweeping up around their house or place of employment. These are not building maintenance workers, but shop keepers, office men, nurses, etc.
4. There is an art to tossing things as under
When it comes to household waste, you schlep your bags to the neighborhood’s designated restrain yourself. On recyclable garbage days you’ll be expected to divide your garbage mindfully. And just to make sure you do, neighbors take turns overlooking the whole process (called "gomi toban").
5. Volunteer litter cleaning organizations help stay awareness
These NPOs take the recreation of litter to an extraordinary level. Greenbird, an organization that can be found in many prefectures throughout Japan, invites citizens to regularly clean high traffic areas of the city such as near the train station.
6. perfect Public Transportation is the norm
‘Nuff said!
7. Cleanliness–even on the road
One of the things that surprised me when I first came to Japan was that even commercial trucks, such as those used in construction, cement-making and dirt hauling, are kept particularly clean.
8. Neighborhood clean-ups
If you live in Japan, you’re bound to be asked to join regularly planned (and semi-obligatory) community clean-ups in your neighborhood. At these preset times, sometimes as early as 7 a.m. so people can participate before they have to go to work, neighbors don belt, carry shovels, scythes, rakes and clippers and collectively clear the street drains, cut back the trees, weeds and grass and usually organized up the nearby area, including small parks and public toilets.

[jowonder201812345]

Originally Posted by Gold miner

Which country is the opposite of Japan in terms of cleanliness? India?

I don't understand why India is so messy. Sri Lanka and Maldives are quite clean and mannered but India seems to be unable to contain itself.

[willister]

Originally Posted by jowonder201812345

Also, HK's horrid urban planning is probably due to British influence in a hark back to London's messy city planning. Taiwan is the only really interesting case because it is generally more horrid that HK because it's nonfunctional in many cases.

I've always wondered why to be honest Taiwan and to a lesser extent Korea never caught onto Japan's cleanliness obsession. Both South Korea and Taiwan are almost always in awe of Japans development and are really into their culture but looking at Taiwan's state of hygiene it appears much closer to that of China's than Japan's. South Korea is better but again I wouldn't say it's anywhere near Japan levels.

[slowlane3]

I've never been to Japan.

But the NHK Japanese cable TV channel, shown in America, had an episode about the cleaning staff on the Tokyo subway system. They are highly motivated, and can clean litter and spruce up each subway car really fast and efficiently.

Because they might feel shame about their lowly jobs, efforts are made to encourage teamwork, use funny comic character logo designs and songs, and try and inject fun and pride into it.