This is the rule set foreign residents get wrong most often, and the one neighbours notice fastest. It is not difficult, but it is genuinely local — there is no national standard, and confident advice from a friend in another city may be wrong where you live.
Get the calendar first
Every municipality publishes a collection calendar showing which category goes out on which day, and most produce one in English, Chinese, Korean and other languages. Get it from the ward office when you register your address, or download it from their site.
Many wards also run an app or a LINE account that will remind you the night before. Worth setting up in your first week, because the collection day for each category differs and missing one means living with the bag for a week.
The categories
Names and colours vary, but most places use some version of:
- Burnable (燃えるゴミ) — food waste, paper that cannot be recycled, small amounts of plastic in some wards. Usually twice a week.
- Non-burnable (燃えないゴミ) — metal, ceramics, small appliances, glass. Often twice a month only.
- Plastic packaging (プラ) — anything with the プラ mark. Rinsed.
- PET bottles — cap and label removed and put with plastics, bottle rinsed and crushed.
- Cans and glass bottles, rinsed.
- Paper and cardboard, flattened and tied with string.
- Hazardous — batteries, lighters, spray cans, fluorescent tubes. Often a separate small container, and spray cans must usually be emptied.
How to put it out
- On the morning of collection, generally before 8:00. Not the night before — this is the rule most often broken and the reason for crow damage.
- At your building's designated point, or the neighbourhood one. Ask your landlord or a neighbour rather than guessing.
- Under the net. Those blue or yellow nets are crow defences. Weight the edges down properly.
- Transparent or semi-transparent bags so the contents can be checked.
A bag left behind usually has a sticker explaining what was wrong. Take it back in, fix it, and put it out next time. It is not a fine, it is a correction.
Large items
Sodai gomi (粗大ゴミ) covers anything over roughly 30cm — furniture, bicycles, futons, suitcases. You cannot simply put it out.
- Book a collection by phone or online with the ward.
- You are told a price and a date.
- Buy a sticker for that amount at a convenience store, write the reference on it, and stick it on the item.
- Put it out on the morning of the booked date.
Book a week or two ahead, and much further ahead in March, when everyone in Japan moves at once.
The four appliances, and electronics
Televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners are excluded from municipal collection by law. Disposal is arranged through the retailer — often the shop you buy the replacement from — with a recycling fee. Computers are also handled separately, usually by the manufacturer.
When you move out
Clearing a flat generates exactly the things that need booking in advance. Start the large-item bookings two to three weeks before your move-out date, particularly in spring.
The phrases
- ゴミの分別を教えてください。 — Gomi no bunbetsu o oshiete kudasai. — Please explain the rubbish sorting.
- 粗大ゴミを出したいです。 — Sodai gomi o dashitai desu. — I would like to dispose of a large item.
- これは燃えるゴミですか。 — Kore wa moeru gomi desu ka? — Is this burnable rubbish?
- 収集日はいつですか。 — Shūshūbi wa itsu desu ka? — When is collection day?
Where to confirm this
- Your own city or ward office — this is genuinely local and theirs is the only authoritative answer
- Our guide to registering your address, where you can pick up the calendar
- Our guide to moving out
Guides are dated rather than undated: last reviewed 21 August 2026. This is an organisational aid, not legal or immigration advice — always confirm anything consequential with your ward office, the Immigration Services Agency, or a qualified professional.