Toshima City, Tokyo, has used the Pirika for Governments visualization page since April 2022, and works hard to keep its streets beautiful.

Even before the visualization page, Toshima held a "Zero Waste Day" event around May 30 each year and lent out cleaning tools. Recently, it has placed these separate cleanup activities under one project, the "Toshima Machi-Kirei (Clean Town) Project."

We asked a staff member of the Environmental Beautification Group, Environmental Conservation Division, Toshima City, about why the city adopted the visualization page, and mainly about interactions in the Pirika App.

1. "It has to be fun first!" Starting the Toshima Machi-Kirei Project to build a sense of unity through litter picking

Toshima has put effort into beautification, such as Zero Waste Day and lending cleaning tools. When did you start stepping up these activities?

The city has led activities with residents, companies and groups through events such as Zero Waste Day and the autumn Zero Waste Week. The problem was that awareness among residents stayed low and these activities were not widely known. So from around last year, we began to reorganize cleanups that used to stand alone into one project, the "Toshima Machi-Kirei Project." Since April this year, each event has been placed within this project to give it a sense of unity.

Many local governments say awareness of cleanups is a challenge, but I had not heard the word "unity" before. Why did you focus on it?

At events like Zero Waste Day we already wore matching bibs, but each event felt self-contained. So we made a logo for the Machi-Kirei Project and let everyone know we are working as one project. We thought this could lower the barrier to joining and raise awareness, which is why we focused on unity. We wanted to share the fun of cleanups as "All Toshima." To help people feel litter picking is close to them, we also asked Gomi-Hiroi Samurai (the “Litter-Picking Samurai”) to serve as Machi-Kirei Ambassador.

It was impressive how Toshima staff keep trying and researching ways to make litter picking fun.

My predecessor also told me, "It is important to have fun," and I enjoy it too. For example, I pick up litter on my way to work and post it on Pirika. I look forward to the badges you get in the app, so I try to use it on my days off as well.

2. A trial litter-picking campaign was a big success, so the city adopted the visualization page to encourage more interaction among residents

How did you first learn about Pirika?

While looking into other cities' beautification efforts, I found that another local government had a visualization page.

As a trial, you started the "Toshima Clean UP Challenge!" with the Pirika App in 2021. It drew over 30,000 "thank yous" and over 150,000 pieces of litter picked up, and the campaign was extended. It was a big success even though it was the first time. What helped?

I think it was because we spread the word widely with posters and flyers. We explained how to use Pirika with illustrations, and changed the flyers for each target group. For example, we made a flyer for dog owners called "Wan-San-Pi" (walk the dog and use Pirika) and asked the health center to put it at their counter. We also visited companies and city facilities in Toshima that do cleanups, and had them try the Pirika App.

From April 2022 you introduced the visualization page. What made you go from the campaign to the visualization page?

We felt it was an effective tool for giving cleanups in Toshima a sense of unity. Until the campaign, the city did not know about the daily cleanups that companies, community groups and volunteer groups did to give back to the community. These groups also did not know what the others were doing.

But the campaign encouraged interaction between groups, and events could be shared in the Pirika App. We felt it was a very effective tool for encouraging cooperation and interaction among participants. Also, because of COVID-19 we could not hold large events, but with the Pirika App anyone can take part at any place and time. We saw this as an advantage for promoting litter picking.

How have residents reacted since the visualization page started?

Through Pirika, new kinds of people have become interested in cleanups. Recently an elementary school child and a parent came to borrow cleaning tools. Volunteer groups usually borrow them, so I asked, and they said they had become interested in cleanups through Pirika and decided to use the tools.

There was another encounter at an SDGs booth in the farmers' market the city holds at IKE-SUNPARK. A local idol of Toshima City was there. She had been patrolling and cleaning her local shopping street and posting about it on the Pirika App. I had seen her posts, so when we met at the park I said, "You use Pirika, right? Thank you." She told me she was happy when she received a comment from Toshima City in the app. It was a moment when I felt we had connected through Pirika.

At this event we also ran a campaign to promote the Pirika App. People who installed it on the spot got red work gloves from the Machi-Kirei Project. Later, quite a few people posted photos wearing them, and I felt the circle of cleanups was growing. When a local government hands out novelty items, we rarely see what happens afterward, so I was glad to see it on Pirika.

This year, Toshima marks 90 years since it became a city ward. We are running various commemorative projects so that this becomes a year of big progress toward the next ten years. We launched the visualization page in this anniversary year, while residents were paying attention, and we want to use that to spread the word even more.

3. As an SDGs Future City, Toshima looks beyond litter picking to "sustainable cities and communities" and the arts

At Pirika, we believe the beautification work you are doing will eventually lead to solving bigger environmental problems. What do you think?

Toshima has been chosen as an SDGs Future City. As a leading city in Japan, it is building a sustainable community that can be a new model for the SDGs. Every project the city runs is meant to contribute to one or more SDG goals, and our division works under the goal of "sustainable cities and communities." There is a limit to what local government can do alone for environmental beautification. To keep it going across the whole community, we want to use tools like Pirika so that many groups in Toshima can work together on environmental issues.

Toshima seems to work hard on community-based town building, such as its International Art and Culture City plan and its own local media. How do you see environmental issues?

On Zero Waste Day, Sunshine City Corporation, which runs an aquarium, picked up litter near Sunshine City with the thought, "Let's pick up litter on land that could end up in the sea!", in order to reduce marine litter. The city also does cleanups with the awareness that picking up litter in Toshima will in time reduce litter flowing into the sea and improve the natural environment.

4. Next: keeping litter picking going and widening participation

What would you like to aim for as you continue beautification work with the visualization page?

We want to hold cleanup events with companies, neighborhood associations and shopping streets, and to work within Pirika with companies, groups and individuals we have not worked with before. We want to widen participation, for example by involving companies that have never done cleanups, and to build a system that keeps them going. That is our aim.

For summer vacation, I would like to make a flyer for elementary school children, "Try a summer project with Pirika." Litter picking is hard in the summer heat, but I hope we can encourage things like "use Pirika on your way home from morning exercises."

Toshima City, Tokyo visualization page: here

More about Pirika for Governments: here