Editorial Policy & Data Methodology — Japan Waste Disposal Guide

About This Page

The Japan Waste Disposal Guide covers waste sorting and collection information for 1,300+ municipalities across Japan. To help readers trust our data, we openly disclose how we collect, verify, and maintain this information.

1. Primary Sources

The sorting categories, collection schedules, and fees on this site are compiled from the sources below. Some items have not yet been checked against official municipal documents (see section 4).

Source Priority

1. Official municipal websites (.lg.jp / .city.*.jp / .town.*.jp domains)
2. Official PDFs and sorting guides issued by municipalities
3. Official sorting apps (government-issued only)
4. Open data catalogs (e-Stat, BODIK, municipal open data portals)

Sources We Do Not Use

• Personal blogs, content farm websites
• Information older than 3 years
• Unattributed social media posts
• Commercial comparison sites (secondary sources)

Municipality item pages include an “Official Sources” section with the URL of the municipality’s official waste page. This is usually the same page for every item in that municipality, and is not necessarily the page used for that particular item. Japanese item pages marked as checked against official documents also link to the document used for the check. (Item pages built from municipal open data and similar sources — pages with /local/ in the URL — do not show a URL.)

2. Data Collection Pipeline

[1] Fetch municipal web pages (URLs managed in data/sources.yaml)
       ↓
[2] Structured extraction via LLM (Claude)
       ↓
[3] Automated validation
   - Hazardous item guard (batteries/spray cans/gas cylinders never as "burnable")
   - Small appliance guard (iron/hair-dryer never as "bulky")
   - Logical sorting consistency check
       ↓
[4] Publish + update sitemap

Automated Validation Rules

When a city is published (taken out of “under review”), the checks below run automatically. An error on hazardous items or small appliances stops the release of that city. Items that have not yet been checked against official documents, and pages with /local/ in the URL (built from municipal open data and similar sources), are not covered by these checks.

• Hazardous items (waste oil, gas cylinders, spray cans, batteries, fluorescent lamps, fire extinguishers) classified as burnable waste → error. “Burnable” here means a category name containing 可燃, 燃やす or 燃える (categories that also contain 粗大 or 大型, i.e. bulky, are excluded). Exceptions confirmed in official municipal documents (burnable under conditions) and recorded in our exception ledger are also excluded
• Small appliances (iron, hair-dryer, game console, smartphone, tablet, thermometer, lighter) classified as bulky waste → error. Special category names such as “non-burnable bulky waste”, entries listing several categories, and exceptions confirmed in official documents and recorded in our ledger are excluded
• Cities where almost all items fall into one category get a warning as a possible extraction error (a warning alone does not stop publication)
• Phone numbers are extracted from official sources only (LLM generation prohibited; tracked via phone_verified: true)

Checking Against Official Documents After Publication (Some Cities and Items)

For some cities and items, we check the published data against official municipal documents after publication and fix any differences. The check works like this:

1. A checker (AI) extracts the category, fee and disposal steps from the official web page or PDF, together with the original text that supports them
2. A second checker (AI) tries to refute that conclusion
3. A script confirms that the quoted original text appears verbatim in the saved copy of the official document (documents that are images are checked by eye)
4. The operator approves the fix before it is applied, and the record of the check is kept

Not every city or item has been checked this way.

3. Update Policy

We do not currently re-check every city and item against official municipal documents on a fixed schedule. These are the jobs that run on a fixed schedule:

• Every Tuesday: For some of the cities with a collection-day calendar, the calendar data is compared automatically with the municipality’s official data. If a difference is found (other than differences we have already checked and recorded, such as differences in how the official data is written), the “next collection day” shown on that city’s Japanese item pages is switched off, and it stays off until the data has been fixed and checked
• Every hour: We fetch waste-related pages of some municipalities (such as their news lists) and the Ministry of the Environment press release page to pick up new announcements. These become candidates for our news section; they do not change the sorting data automatically
• Every morning: We record whether our own data (categories, fees, disposal steps, etc.) has changed, in a change log. This does not re-fetch official websites

Rule Changes

When we find an official announcement of a rule change, we check it against the official documents before updating our pages. How long this takes varies from change to change.

Municipality item pages show an Updated date (pages with /local/ in the URL show a “Data updated” date). For the meaning of the Last verified date, see section 4.

Pages Under Maintenance

When data accuracy is in doubt, we temporarily unpublish the city via our blacklist mechanism rather than display potentially incorrect information.

4. Source Transparency

The “Official Sources” section of municipality item pages shows:

• URL of the municipality’s official waste page (usually the same page for every item in that municipality; not necessarily the page used for that particular item)
• Domain name (e.g., city.nagoya.jp)
• Last verified date (the date we compiled or updated the information for that item, or the date we checked it against official documents; it does not always mean the item was checked against official documents)

When in doubt, please verify directly with the municipality’s official website.

5. Reporting Errors

We take accuracy seriously, but mistakes can happen. To report:

• Visit our Contact page with the URL and issue description
• We check reports against official municipal documents before making a fix
• Including the official source URL makes it easier for us to check

6. About the Operation

7. Advertising & Affiliate Disclosure

This site participates in affiliate programs to support operations:

• A8.net (Fan Communications, Inc.)
• afb (ForIT, Inc.)

The “Junk Removal” and “Buyback” CTAs on each item page are sponsored content (PR). When users apply or complete transactions through these links, the site receives referral fees.

No additional cost to users — payment is made by advertisers to the site.

Featured services are selected based on user benefit (not solely commission rates):

• Nationwide coverage
• Free appraisal and cancellation
• Reasonable reputation and brand recognition

Each CTA is clearly labeled “PR / Sponsored” in accordance with Japan’s stealth marketing regulations.

8. Disclaimer

• All information is an editorial summary of public sources
• Rules and fees may change; the most authoritative source is always the municipality itself
• Always confirm with the official site before acting
• We assume no liability for any damages arising from use of this information
• For issues with affiliate-linked services, please contact the service provider directly

See Terms of Use for details.

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