Can I take sodai gomi from the street?

Basically title. I saw a toaster oven and it looked clean and newish. Can I just take it?

17 comments
  1. No, *in most municipalities* it is considered theft, and can land you in hot water.

    Once the sodai-gomi sticker has been affixed, the item is the property of the municipality.

    If your municipality doesn’t have such an ordinance, then you’re free to take it – confirm with your city office.

    Edit: Clarification

  2. I’ve had people take my sodai gomi before so it definitely happens. It was kind of annoying considering I had arranged and paid for it to be taken away, but at the same time I’m glad it’s getting more use… mixed feelings lol

  3. I understand but this is really dumb. Anything you can keep out of the garbage dump is good.
    I’ve tried my best to collect things and recycle them out.

  4. Technically no but Ive done it plenty of times and nothing ever happened. And I doubt anyone would care except some miserable obaasan with nothing better to do in her life than be a garbage nazi. I fail to see the problem with it. The person is paying to get rid of it so what does it matter where it’s going as long as it’s no longer their problem, and if anything I’d rather someone be using my old stuff than it just getting tossed into a landfill. Then again Japan seems to get off on producing as much petrochemical waste as possible so who knows.

  5. When we throw away those items we have to buy stickers and register the information, I believe it would be a problem when officials come to pick up but item not found.

  6. In my city you have to organize both time and place for the Sodai Gomi to be collected. So when they come around to to collect it and find it missing, they would probably try to contact the person to see if there was a misunderstanding or something regarding the pickup location. So in short it creates problems for other people so don’t.

  7. I’ve never grabbed sodai gomi but damned if I haven’t gleaned GREAT books and vinyl over the years

  8. Ah, the days of the Bubble Economy in the 1980s, when whole gaijin apartments were furnished with the most luxurious casually-purloined sodai gomi, including the previous season’s top electronics, rugs, appliances, amazing furniture, artwork, lamps, and everything else under the sun. Stuff was just put on the street, knowing that people would take it away.

    It was the Golden Age. 😍

  9. No. People have paid to get rid of it and someone is coming to collect it. Don’t cause meiwaku and instead check out [ジモティー](https://jmty.jp/) for free stuff that people are giving away

  10. Garbage belongs to the person who threw it out, anything with garbage sticker, belongs to the government. So taking it is considered a theft.

    Sodai gomi are often picked up by other people though. It’s technically theft, but they probably won’t track you down for it.

  11. Back in the bubble people threw away quality stuff. A lot of gaijin used to do midnight Gomi runs to furnish their apartments….

    Edit: sorry, someone posted a similar comment

  12. Just take it in the middle of the night. You don’t want to get labeled as the weird trash taking gaijin 😂

  13. It seems a trend at the apartment I was living before that any sodai gomi outside is free for all. With or without stickers. I took out a my kiddie slide outside with stickers. I’m so glad somebody got it instead.

  14. its better in my opinion that someone takes it from me instead of it going to some landfill

  15. No : the moment a sticker is on it, it has become the municipality’s property, so taking it means stealing. Think of it as someone putting a reservation ticket on the object.

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