Shonan Beach is filthy – stop littering!
NTV’s “Real Time News” aired a special report yesterday about Shonan Beach’s huge litter problem. Here’s an excerpt (subtitled in English):
A lot of the garbage, especially the glass bottles, comes from people who were drinking alcohol on the beach. Perhaps it would make sense to pass some strict rules about the consumption of alcohol on most areas of the beach, or at least make a very serious effort to enforce existing anti-litter laws?
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I saw that show. It was eerily similar to the “Beach Patrol” shows on Tru TV in the US. I guess there is something about sun, sand and alcohol that is culturally transcendent.
It was scary the amount of broken glass the “lifesavers” picked up; an immediate ban on glass containers would seem a good move, at least. And there was that poor kid with what looked like a fishing lure embedded in his foot.
It’s not that tough to clear up after yourself, people; don’t be so damned selfish!
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Do what Singapore does. Catch them litterbugs and make them clean the beach while wearing neon coloured vests. Banning alcohol won’t stop the littering
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+1
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Sounds like a very good idea to me.
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I don’t know about this beach, so I may be wrong, but if it’s anything like the rest of Japan, there’s probably no garbage can there – or else, one small one that is totally insufficient for so many people.
True, people should totally take their garbage with them, but if they provided a number of large bins, not too difficult to find or too far from the beach, I’m sure the litter problem would improve at least somewhat…
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London used to have litter bins everywhere and the litter was atrocious. After a bombing campaign by the IRA using litter bins they were withdrawn from service and to the surprise of local councils, the litter problem virtually vanished.
Turns out there is a counter intuitive relationship between litter and bins. If people know there’s nowhere to dispose of trash, they tend to preempt the situation by planning for it. That’s why there’s so few trash bins in Tokyo. They took the study to heart. And lo, Tokyo is pretty trash free.
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It’s true, mostly the cities are so trash-free, despite the severe lack of bins. It seems at this particular beach, they’ve hit on a specific demographic that doesn’t care about litter…
It’s just the same in Australia; I feel absolutely disgusted whenever I go to a big public event, and when everyone leaves, there is a little pile of garbage where they were sitting. It’s like they are animals leaving their waste behind them. -_-
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i think shaming into picking up the litter: wearing the bright orange vests is a good idea. Japanese hate that being singled out shame thing.
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Man, if I saw those little ingrates doing that when I was that the beach I’d be tellin’ ‘em to pick up their trash in the vulgar tone I could conjure. Cans and bottles are one things, but NAILS AND BROKEN BOTTLES are inexcusable.
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First of all, ther SHOULD be litter cans, large ones at the exit points of the beach. Second, there should be police or someone there watching so when people like this do this, they are caught and FINED, plus made to pick up the garbage. That might work against some of the complete idiots polluting the beach. That is disgusting, it looks like some 3rd world place!! Shame on Japan!!!
The Shonan beaches are indeed disgusting — after my first trip down there I simply refused to go back. Besides all the trash on the shore (both human and otherwise), there’s also a lot of junk in the water which washes up out of Tokyo Bay.
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I wind up heading down that way occassionally as it’s the most accessible beach to me, and some of them are just downright revolting. It’s mostly the gyaru/yankee-looking types that contribute to the problem I believe.
If you want to avoid this, head for Yuigahama instead of Enoshima as it’s much better. Was at Enoshima last week, which has overflowing trash bins at the exits, and parts were horrible, but went to Yuigahama (closer to Kamakura sta.) about a month ago and it was much cleaner. Not only that, but while we were there they made an announcement and then a patrol of volunteers went around picking up trash just lying around.
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I’ve never seen neat Shonan beach..
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hah, where’s the japanese discipline now? even in my own country i would never leave my old stuff behind, i think it’s gross. but what struck me most was the carelessness of those four girls on the scooter, and the way they replied to the guard.
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It’s lost in the new generation of Japanese.
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Simply put: that beach is a shtthole.
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I live in Fukui and even in the country side, the beaches are pretty trashed. I’m from San Diego, and although the city is not as clean as the cities in Japan, the beaches are kept pretty neat. Why? Because there are trash cans sprawled out all up and down the beach.
Japan needs trash cans on the beach. Really sad actually since everything else is pretty clean.
I asked some people once why the beaches where so messy and they said that it was trash from China drifting ashore!!
WTF!!!
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I used to live on the northern Sea of Japan coast in Tohoku. The beaches were absolutely disgusting- garbage everywhere. Whenever I asked a Japanese person about it, I got the same answers: “It’s the Chinese” or “It’s the Koreans” or “It’s the Russians”, implying that the stuff all floated over from across the sea and washed up on innocent Japanese shores. But sometimes I made a point to have a better look at some of that garbage, and surprise surprise- more than 90% of it had Japanese writing on it.
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yo Uncle Wally,
>: “It’s the Chinese” or “It’s the Koreans” or “It’s the Russians”
> more than 90% of it had Japanese writing on it.
right. But first you need to remove established common sense (who says otherwise) from those heads.
Eradicating cancer from a brain is much easier than eradicating common sense from the same place.
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He he, stupid nature…..
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hehe.. evolution is very efective isnt it?
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how other world figured out this problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation
aside that the city should finaly install garbage cans on that beach. or citizens should ask the tru masters of japan to help them – Yakuza. in the end its make japan deeper than third world countries not to care about garbage on own tourist atractions..
i saw sometimes how germans run in a train and collected all boutles. one of them told me he did 10-30 euros in a hour. figure out how clean it will be when you mix all those tactics to keep clean your cities.
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1. Trash receptacles are badly needed
2. Why cover out the perpetrator’s faces?
3. That Smirnoff ice bottle was totally filled with urine
4. Those kids were making a sand erection on their friend (0:45)
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1. yep
2. it’s a japanese thing.
3. nah.
4. lolwut
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There should be some fine when the accused is seen.
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