Japan’s Shibuya to fine litterbugs on the spot from June as visitor numbers surge

Tokyo’s Shibuya ward – home to the famous scramble crossing and one of the Japanese capital’s busiest shopping and nightlife districts – is abandoning its long-standing policy of asking people to take their rubbish home.Instead, it is turning to on-the-spot fines as visitor numbers surge and litter piles up.Under a new campaign branded “If you throw trash, you lose cash”, anyone caught dropping rubbish will be fined 2,000 yen (US$12.50), with enforcement starting on June 1 after a grace period.The move marks a shift from a policy introduced around 2013, when the ward removed public bins because they were overwhelmed and encouraged people to dispose of waste responsibly themselves.A decade on, officials say that approach has failed to keep streets clean amid a sharp rise in footfall, including inbound tourists, in one of Tokyo’s busiest commercial and entertainment districts.Locals and foreign tourists alike crowd the streets to watch dancing and a drum performance during the Shibuya-bon-odori-festival" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="92141" data-entity-type="event">Shibuya Bon Odori Festival in August 2025. Photo: Jiji Press/AFPThe revised Ordinance for Creating a Clean Shibuya Together is a “landmark initiative” that aims to address the “growing littering problem associated with the sharp increase in visitors, including inbound foreign tourists”, city officials say.