I lived in Tokyo when the terrible
sarin incident occurred. In a clean-obsessed society like Japan, for the weeks after the attack it was difficult to manage life in the train stations without public trash cans. Officials held that the removal was necessary for safety reasons. Thus I was surprised on my recent trip to Tokyo to see the return of trash bins and their clever design.
With its see-through sides, each of the bins is subject to the collective intelligence of passersby on the train platform. This key2();?> approach thus solves the problem of regular monitoring by officials, and also increases public consciousness of waste/recycling.
John Maeda
