Shibuya City, Tokyo, is centered on the area around Shibuya Station and its famous scramble crossing. Ebisu and Hiroo are to the south, and Sasazuka and Hatagaya are to the north. There is also Takeshita Street in Harajuku. Each area has its own culture, and many visitors come from outside the city and from overseas. Shibuya has busy shopping streets, homes and offices. Its population has slowly grown since the 1990s and is now about 245,000. In this popular city where all kinds of people gather, we spoke with Nakao of the city’s Clean Town Section.

1. Town planning in Shibuya

— What does the Clean Town Section do?

Littering, smoking and graffiti. Our main work is dealing with these three. For littering and graffiti, we clean up and work to stop them from happening again. For smoking, we work on separate smoking areas and on preventing secondhand smoke. We often go out into town, and we see how many different people help shape Shibuya. Improving the environment of each area is very rewarding. Each district in the city has a beautification committee, and its members clean their own neighborhoods. Not only residents but also companies take part. People rooted in the community remove graffiti and pick up litter together. Their work is what makes the city clean.

2. Why we have surveyed littering for five years

— Why do you keep surveying littering with Takanome (walking version)?

A key issue for the city is street litter, in other words, littering. It has grown a lot in recent years, and reports from residents have also increased. The city started surveys with Takanome (walking version) five years ago. Without surveys, we would have to rely on staff’s feelings to judge whether litter is going up or down. Now we have five years of data and can make it visible. We think this is a very meaningful project. The city also gives environmental classes from elementary school to university, and we can show the amount of littering as numbers. Local governments are expected to use data. It is a big benefit that not only our staff but also people outside can see Shibuya’s street litter in numbers.

We survey five places: Shibuya, Koshu-kaido Avenue, Harajuku, Ebisu and Yoyogi. The results show that places such as Shibuya Station and Center Gai have far more litter than other places. We had sensed this, but the Takanome survey made it visible and clear when comparing locations. This helps us decide which areas to focus on. We make a clean city together with shops, companies, residents and many others, so being able to share this information is also very helpful.

— Do you have any litter measures unique to Shibuya?

Yes. There are many young people here, so we need new ideas for them. Besides residents, more and more people are visiting Shibuya for the first time, including tourists from overseas. To keep the city clean and to explain the city’s rules clearly, we use signs in several languages. We also have announcements by soccer player Yuto Nagatomo in Japanese and English in Center Gai to raise awareness. We work to reach all kinds of people.

For smoking areas, Shibuya City’s ordinance on large buildings for a safe and secure town requires buildings with a total floor area of over 10,000 square meters to have a public smoking area that anyone can use. Coordinating under such rules so that residents and visitors can feel comfortable is part of our role as a local government. But so many people gather in this city that support from the private sector is essential.

3. Making Shibuya clean together with all kinds of people, the Shibuya way

— How do you use the littering survey data?

So far, we have made the amount of street litter visible with data. Using this data is our next step. In fiscal year 2023, as many as 5,550 people did cleanups in the city. This is the number of people who borrowed the city’s cleaning tools, so in reality even more people are taking part. We want to get the data to volunteers in a useful way, so they can clean where there is more litter. We will decide on specific methods from now on. One of Shibuya’s strengths is its progress in ICT, based on its 2016 Basic Concept, “Shibuya: a city that turns difference into power.” So we want to share information in an easy-to-understand way.

Cleanups are also a place for people in the community to meet. On April 28, “Shibuya Day” (4-2-8 can be read as “Shi-bu-ya” in Japanese), we hold a spring cleanup across the city. In autumn, we run a campaign to raise awareness of the city ordinance. At these times, all kinds of people take part, such as railway companies, shopping streets, the police and local residents. Everyone works together to clean the city, and we feel a sense of unity. When we announce an event, both businesses and residents help us. That is very much like Shibuya, and we love it. We want to focus on efforts that widen the circle to Shibuya’s diverse people, including those who were not interested in the environment before. We also hope to work with nearby cities, not just within Shibuya, to build cleaner cities together.

Shibuya City’s published results of the Takanome walking survey (street litter survey, in Japanese): here

Ordinance on large buildings for a safe and secure town (in Japanese): here

More about Takanome: here