Designated Bags (Shitei Gomi-Bukuro) System
The designated trash bag system in Japan means your address decides which bag your garbage must go in. The 指定ごみ袋 (shitei gomi-bukuro, "municipality-designated garbage bag") is a city-specific printed bag you buy at shops and use for set-out.12 Get the wrong city's bag, or any bag at all in a designated-bag city, and collectors leave it in place.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at your city office site, including the Kyoto City and Kobe City pages cited below.
Overview
This guide covers who needs designated bags, the two bag models cities use, what the bags look like, what they cost, and which big cities use plain clear bags instead. It applies city by city, because each city's bag system is its own and no city's rule generalizes to another.
A paid-system city folds the disposal fee into the bag price, so every liter you throw away has a price. A simple-specification city only fixes the bag's shape and print, and shops sell it at market price with no disposal fee inside.2 Clear-bag cities fix no bag at all and only require transparent or semi-transparent bags.34
The decision you face on moving day looks like this:
Two Designated-Bag Models: Paid and Simple Specification
Kyoto and Kobe show the two models side by side. Kyoto charges through the bag, while Kobe only standardizes it. Knowing which model your city uses tells you whether bag choice saves disposal money or just keeps collection running smoothly.
Paid designated bags with disposal fee in the price
Kyoto has run a paid system since October 1, 2006. Buying the bag is paying the collection fee, and the price is written into the city waste ordinance to build cost awareness and push reduction and recycling.1
The per-liter logic is deliberate. A bigger bag always costs more, so throwing away less costs less. Kyoto's burnable prices run at about 1 yen per liter (as of 2025-09-19; confirm current figures with Kyoto City).1 Recyclable bags cost about half that rate (as of 2025-09-19).1
Simple-specification bags with market pricing
Kobe has run a simple-specification system since 2008. The city fixes the specification, approves makers (25 makers), and lets retailers sell freely, so the bag price carries no disposal fee and the system is not a pay-as-you-throw charge.2
Shop prices therefore differ through retail competition. The city states it cannot instruct prices under fair-trade rules.2 Residents still pay cash for bags, but disposal itself stays tax-funded rather than bag-funded.
What the Bags Look Like and Where to Buy Them
Bag design is local down to the color and print. Kyoto uses two streams, Kobe uses four, and neither accepts the other's bags. Check the stream printed on the bag before buying.
Bag colors sizes and covered categories
Kyoto burnable bags are yellow semi-transparent, and Kyoto recyclable bags are colorless transparent.15 The two streams are burnable garbage and recyclables (cans, bottles, PET bottles plus plastics). Small metals and spray cans do not use a designated bag and go in a separate visible transparent bag.5
Kobe designates four streams: the 燃えるごみ (moeru gomi, "burnable garbage"), the 燃えないごみ (moenai gomi, "non-burnable garbage"), the 缶・びん・ペットボトル (kan, bin, petto botoru, "cans, glass bottles, PET bottles"), and the 容器包装プラスチック (yōki hōsō purasuchikku, "container and packaging plastics").2 Sizes are 45L, 30L, and 15L in flat (handle-free) and handled U-shape forms, and cutting a bag or doubling bags is not allowed.2
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 指定ごみ袋 (shitei gomi-bukuro) | Municipality-designated garbage bag12 |
| 有料指定袋制度 (yūryō shitei-bukuro seido) | Paid designated-bag system with the fee in the price2 |
| 単純指定袋制度 (tanjun shitei-bukuro seido) | Simple-specification system with market pricing2 |
Kobe burnable bags use stretch-resistant high-density polyethylene for wet heavy waste, while the other three streams use puncture-resistant low-density polyethylene.2 Bags carry six-language labeling so foreign residents can follow the print directly.2
Where to buy and what cannot be substituted
Kyoto bags are sold at nearby designated-bag sellers including supermarkets and convenience stores.1 Kobe bags come in 10, 30, and 50-piece packs at supermarkets, home centers, drugstores, and convenience stores, though shelf assortment varies by store.2
Substitution rules are strict. Kobe states other cities' designated bags, business-system bags, opaque bags, tear-prone bags, leak-prone bags, and bags that cannot be tied shut are all unusable.2 Kyoto leaves garbage set out in non-designated bags in place with a 不適正シール (futekisei shīru, "noncompliance sticker").5
Residents of privately collected apartment buildings in Kyoto are an exception. They use colorless transparent or white transparent bags under the building contractor's rules rather than city designated bags, and should confirm with building management.5
Designated-Bag Costs by City: Pay-As-You-Throw in Practice
Kyoto publishes fixed per-bag prices because the bag is the fee. Kobe publishes no fixed price because the bag is only a specification. The table below keeps the two apart so readers do not mistake a market price for a city fee.
| Item | Amount | As of | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyoto burnable 5L | 5 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 10-bag packs |
| Kyoto burnable 10L | 10 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 10-bag packs |
| Kyoto burnable 20L | 20 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 10-bag packs |
| Kyoto burnable 30L | 30 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 10-bag packs |
| Kyoto burnable 45L | 45 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 10-bag packs |
| Kyoto recyclables 10L | 5 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 5-bag packs, no 5L size |
| Kyoto recyclables 20L | 10 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 5-bag packs |
| Kyoto recyclables 30L | 15 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 5-bag packs |
| Kyoto recyclables 45L | 22 yen | 2025-09-191 | Sold in 5-bag packs |
| Kobe designated bags, any size | Market price, no disposal fee | 2026-06-232 | 45/30/15L; price varies by shop |
| Yokohama household bags | No designated bag | 2026-06-103 | Any transparent or semi-transparent bag |
| Kawasaki ordinary garbage | No designated bag | 2026-04-014 | Lidded container or transparent/semi-transparent bag |
| Saitama City household garbage | No designated bag | 2026-096 | Transparent or semi-transparent bag |
Kyoto's table shows the pay-as-you-throw bands directly: burnable prices sit at about 1 yen per liter (as of 2025-09-19; confirm current figures with Kyoto City).1 That matches the commonly quoted bands of roughly 5 to 10 yen for 5L, 10 to 15 yen for 10L, 20 to 30 yen for 20L, and 40 to 60 yen for the 40L class (as of 2025-09-19).1
Typical per-bag prices and monthly household cost
In a paid city, household bag spending becomes a real budget line. A practitioner estimate puts a typical family at roughly 500 to 1,500 JPY per month (as of 2026-09-06), depending on bag size and set-out frequency. For scale, two 30L burnable bags per week at Kyoto prices is about 240 yen per month before recyclable bags are added.
In a simple-specification city the cash cost remains but the incentive logic differs. Kobe bags cost whatever shops charge, with no disposal fee inside, so choosing a smaller bag saves bag money but does not pay a city waste fee.2
Cities Without Designated Bags: the Clear-Bag Rule
Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Saitama City use the clear-bag rule instead of designated bags. Any transparent or semi-transparent bag works, and opaque black bags are barred in each city.346
Yokohama has required clearly visible transparent or semi-transparent bags since February 2000, and semi-transparent register bags are allowed.37 Kawasaki states explicitly that it has no designated bags: ordinary garbage goes in a lidded plastic container or a transparent or semi-transparent bag by 8:00 AM, twice weekly, and opaque black bags are barred.4
Saitama City requires transparent or semi-transparent bags with black non-see-through bags barred. Burnable collection runs twice weekly by 8:30 AM (5:30 AM in early-morning areas), with transparent-bag rules for each recyclable and non-burnable stream (as of 2026-09).6 Setagaya Ward in Tokyo shows the same pattern: a lidded container up to 90L or a see-through transparent or semi-transparent bag by 8:00 AM, up to three 45L bags per set-out.8
What Happens with the Wrong Bag
Collectors check the bag before they check the contents. Kyoto leaves non-designated-bag set-outs in place with a noncompliance sticker.5 Kawasaki bars opaque black bags whose contents cannot be checked.4 Saitama City bars black or non-see-through bags.6 Setagaya Ward may leave rule-breaking garbage uncollected.8
Timing matters as much as the bag. Kyoto asks for set-out by 8:00 AM on the day, not the night before.5 Kawasaki requires 8:00 AM.4 Saitama City requires 8:30 AM (5:30 AM in early-morning areas).6 Setagaya requires 8:00 AM.8
Good to know
Confirm the new address rule before reusing old bags
Moving between a clear-bag city and a designated-bag city changes everything about the bag shelf. Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Saitama City accept any see-through bag, while Kyoto and Kobe accept only their own printed bags.34612 Old-city stock, including another city's designated bags, is unusable after the move and will be left in place or refused.25
Cross-city bags are never interchangeable
Kobe states that other municipalities' designated bags cannot be used and will not be collected.2 Kyoto's two-stream system also does not map onto Kobe's four-stream system, so even the stream names stop matching across the city line.12 When in doubt, buy a small pack in the new city first.
Small bags cost less per set-out but oversized items leave the bag system
Kyoto's per-liter pricing means a smaller bag costs less each time you set out.1 Items that do not fit the largest designated bag, or exceed about 5 kg for a single item in Kobe, move to the 粗大ごみ (sodai gomi, "oversized garbage") procedure with its own fee and sticker rather than a bigger bag.2 Kyoto separately asks households to hold set-outs to about two hand-carryable bags per collection.5
Keep a small buffer around holidays and supply shortages
Kobe allowed plain transparent or semi-transparent bags only when designated bags were unavailable, from June 1 through September 30, 2026, after panic buying emptied some shelves (as of 2026-06-23; confirm current status with Kobe City).2 The city asked residents to buy only normal-use quantities. A one- or two-week buffer at home covers both retail gaps and year-end collection pauses.
See also
- Japan Trash Sorting Rules and Municipality Variation
- Oversized Trash (Sodai Gomi) and the Prepayment Sticker
- Recycling Specifics: Plastics, Cans, Bottles, Paper
- Garbage-Station Etiquette and the Wrong-Day Name-Tag