Japan is far from perfect when it comes to excessive packaging and recycling. According to this article it actually recycles less than the US:
> In the bigger picture, however, Japan is a recycling laggard. According to 2014 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the municipal recycling rate for Japan was only 21 percent, below top-ranked Germany at 48 percent, Sweden at 33 percent and the United States at 26 percent.
To offset it though, everything here(jpn) is packaged. Banana? Yup, wrap it in plastic.
Rubbish days were interested the first few years though, (5 days a week, something different every day where I live. Luckily there are multiple books describing what and how, in English haha).
