Sort of... on the one hand, fairly often there are recycling bins for cans next to vending machines, so that if you stand there and drink your drink, you can then recycle the can. I did try to do that whenever possible.

On the other hand, recycling at home was much more difficult, at least for me. Our apartment had 1 place where all recycled goods went. You were supposed to take the appropriate good for that day out to the spot either the night before or that morning. You were not supposed to just leave it there as you got it, because a) it would be unsightly because the spot was right in front of the building in the parking lot, next to a power pole, and b) you were only supposed to have glass there on glass pick-up day, cans on can pick-up day, paper on paper pick-up day, etc. I could never remember what day was what, and after accidentally leaving some bottles out on the wrong day and being yelled at for it, I pretty much just said "screw it" and threw it all in the garbage.

I think that there is a difference between what people are thinking when they sort their trash, and the real reasons it is being sorted.
I`d say that these days the majority of people do it because they care about the environment, because they think recycling is a good thing, etc.

In reality, Japan has limited space for disposing of trash, and towns have limited cash to use to pay someone else to get rid of it. So they sort, and most of the recyclables are sold to China (where I am assuming a percentage gets recycled, a percentage gets burnt, etc.) A small percentage stays in Japan where it is used for ground filler, etc... And a very tiny percentage is actually recycled in Japan.

As long as you pay attention to when you should take your trash out (you usually receive a calendar, if not it`s often posted directly at the trash point... And if that fails you can always check online or ask someone) - I would say it`s really very easy to recycle. If you sort it properly and put it outside on the proper day in the proper spot, it`s taken care of.

I don`t think it`s all that hard to manage - not any harder than remembering when normal garbage goes out (specific day, specific location), and our recyclables are put out in a completely different place depending on the type.

Around here, they empty the trash bags into the trash truck - and if someone is doing this they will actually stop picking up the trash for that location. If you live in an apartment or large complex, you can bet everyone else will come to literally kill you for it... No getting away with that type of stuff these days. You could probably slip in some PET and no one would care, but cans and glass.... I dare not even think of the consequences.

They didn't give me a calender (in fact, I only met the manager of the apartment complex once in 2 years, he was very hands-off, don't call me for anything, ever, type of guy), and nothing was posted at the site. They picked up the trash with no problem. This was 10-12 years ago, maybe they became more strict since then, or maybe my town just didn't care as much. It was more of a voluntary thing than a requirement.

I never thought about it before I spent time in Japan but the lengths to sorting the garbage that Japanese go through really suprised me compared to what is done in the US. To contrast that even more, pre-sorting garbage and recycleables isn't even neccesary. Most of the garbage companies in the US have sorting operations at their facilities. Before your garbage goes to the landfill the company will sort out the recycleables so they don't waste landfill space. Even the recycling bins have been simplified from having to sort them out in seperate bins, to now placing all of your recycleables in one bin.

This made me lol.

As a Japanese, I must say this,

Japan is nice country to visit but not to live.

I came back from US last month, still can't be able to adjust to the life speed of this country.

At least, I can see your point.

When I stayed in Kyoto at a little Ryokan, I didn't properly sort my trash. Only to find the little old lady sorting through my garbage later that day.

I made it clear to her that I was sorry, and I took over from there :p

I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts about your time in America! Maybe you could start a thread about if, if you don't mind? We get a ton of comments from westerners visiting Japan, but not nearly as many from Japanese visiting the west, and what they saw and thought about it. Was it your first time in the US? Was it what you expected?

Swiftwind, when you said "Most places won't accept anyone less than JLPT1", what places are you talking about? I really want to know more about this JLPT. And what is the JET program?

I also have another question for a friend of mine. If you do not consider hating you home, loving Japanese culture, thinking Asians are hott, thinking you could be more successful there, or enjoying Japanese entertainment a good reason to move to Japan from the USA, then what is?

Probably most any job that involves having to speak with Japanese on a regular basis in Japanese. For instance, becoming a university professor of a subject outside of English, you would more than likely need a high level of Japanese to teach it.The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is given twice a year (in Japan, to my knowledge), and once in other countries. There are four levels, currently. Level 4 is the easiest (beginner Japanese stuff) and Level 1 is the most difficult. One needs to know a lot of grammar and vocabulary and Kanji for that one.The JET Program is a government run program that have native English speakers working at as Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) in schools throughout Japan or Coordinators for International Relations (CIR) in like the board of education or offices, or something like that (I read that for this position, it's good to have a lvl 2 Japanese Language Proficiency).Sounds okay to me.