Photo: The Smart Local.
Members of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai, or the trash-collecting samurai, wear full-length samurai outfits and wield waste tongs that look like swords.
Proving that any kind of work can be turned into a game, Rebecca Rosman and Julia Kim report at Public Radio International’s the World, about some waste pickers in Japan.
“Passersby do a double take when they see Kaz Kobayashi and Ikki Goto. The two men glide through Tokyo’s bustling Ikebukuro district in full-length samurai outfits, while wielding objects that look like swords. They are members of the Gomi Hiroi Samurai or the trash-collecting samurai. …
“On closer inspection, their samurai swords — or katanas — are actually just very long tongs, used to pick up litter. Kobayashi said the tongs are important for novelty value.
“ ‘We’re doing this as entertainment … but it can be tiring sometimes. It’s tough, Man.’
“The Gomi Hiroi Samurai do this three times a week. There’s four of them, and they’re professional actors. In their spare time, they volunteer to keep the streets of Tokyo clean. Goto formed the group in 2009. Since then, they have become a viral sensation on TikTok, with over 700,000 followers and counting.
“Here in Ikebukuro, they target back alleys and parking lots, which are rife with litter. Kobayashi and Goto, working in sync, slice and spin their tongs through the air, meticulously seizing cigarette butts one by one before tossing them into the wastebaskets strapped to their backs. …
“An hour later, Kobayashi and Goto took their wastebaskets to a recycling base. There, they separated out every piece of rubbish they’ve collected. They said that they hope to recruit more Gomi Hiroi samurai in Japan — and around the world — to spread their message: ‘We punish immoral hearts.’
“It means that trash in and of itself isn’t bad. Instead, it’s people and the actions that stem from their negative mindsets. And a growing sense of negativity is something that Kobayashi said worries him.
“ ‘This is a problem in Japan,’ he said. ‘People don’t go outside.’
“Last month, a government survey showed that 1.5 million people are living as social recluses in Japan. With loneliness and depression on the rise, Kobayashi said he hopes that their fun, zany take on something as mundane as trash-collecting helps people reengage with the outside world.
“ ‘Samurai is a warrior,’ he said. ‘Our philosophy is to help people.’
“For these eco-warriors, ‘clean space, clear mind’ is more than just a saying — it’s the way of the Gomi Hiroi samurai.”
More at the World, here. I was amazed that the “samurai” are doing this hard work as volunteers. PRI also has stories on trash pickers in countries like India, Ghana, and Colombia, where they earn a meager amount of pay and live very difficult lives.
I have to say, I think that public litter is best addressed by everybody pitching in. Clean communities are often the result of peer pressure against creating litter in the first place and individuals who are proud enough of their community to pick up litter where they see it.
PS. In case you don’t always read the Comments, do look at Hannah’s, which included a tip about Ya Fave Trashman. Like the trash samurai, he adds entertainment to an undervalued job. His online talks gained him fame during the pandemic, when trash was piling up in Philadelphia. Read about him here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
A couple of years ago my book group read two books about the trash collectors in Cambodia (The Rent Collector) and Mumbai (Behind the Beautiful Forevers) about the communities that literally live on the dumps in these areas. Trash in Philadelphia is a chronic problem. During the pandemic, when trash would sometimes not be collected for weeks, Ya Fave Trashman, a worker on one of the trucks, became a celebrity with his amusing outspoken-ness about the problem and what people could do to solve it. The problem hasn’t been fixed, and Da Trashman didn’t win his bid for City Council, but he’s still at it. I applaud these creative people for bringing attention to the problem. It seems that not picking up is part of our nature. These small attempts remind those of us who need it that if we all did our part, the problem would disappear.
Hannah
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What a great comment, Hannah, and what an interesting book group that must have been! I have never heard of a group that picked reading material like that.
The group is through my church, and though we are supposed to keep some sort of ethical themes, recently we have been more into social justice issues. These books fit in there somehow, but they are fascinating in how people living in the direst poverty can be successful in their world, sometimes moving beyond it.
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Social justice is ethical.
Fabulous story. Shows how litter can become a problem anywhere, and how ingenious people can call attention to the problem so more people pitch in.
If only companies and individuals took more responsibility for their own waste, things wouldn’t get to the point where it all feels hopeless.
Yes. “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
LOVE that!
At the company where I worked in Austin TX, someone put that above the collective sink, and I’ve never forgotten it.
Fun is right. Go, trash samurais!