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Sodai Gomi in Japan: How to Book Bulky Waste Pickup | MyKyoten

Dumping large items on the street in Japan is illegal and traceable to your address. Here's how to book sodai gomi pickup and what it actually costs.

Last verified: 2026. This guide is based on Immigration Bureau regulations, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare guidelines, and standard Japanese administrative practice. It is informational only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney or official government sources for case-specific guidance.

Leaving Japan means dealing with a lot of paperwork. It also means dealing with your sofa.

Dumping large items on the street is illegal. Not "frowned upon" illegal. Prosecutable illegal. Fines start at ¥30,000 per incident in many municipalities and can go higher depending on the ward. In dense urban areas like Shinjuku or Adachi, buildings are registered in the resident management system, and discarded items found near your building's garbage station can be traced back to your address. Your landlord gets called. Your deposit gets touched. In the worst cases, it creates a paper trail that shows up against your name in building records.

Do it the right way. It takes about 20 minutes once you understand the system.

So What Actually Counts as Sodai Gomi?

Sodai gomi (粗大ごみ) means "bulky waste." The category covers large items that do not fit in your regular weekly garbage bags.

Items that fall under sodai gomi:

Items that do NOT fall under sodai gomi: This is where foreigners frequently get this wrong.

Four specific appliances are covered by Japan's Home Appliance Recycling Law (家電リサイクル法): televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. These cannot be disposed of through the standard sodai gomi booking process. They require a completely separate paid recycling route: either through the retailer where you purchase a replacement, through your original retailer of purchase, or through a designated recycling collection service. Fees vary but typically run ¥1,000 to ¥5,000 per item depending on type and size. Air conditioners sit at the expensive end.

Trying to book a regular sodai gomi pickup for a refrigerator will either get rejected outright or, if collected by mistake, result in a follow-up notice and additional charges.

→ Use the Document Decoder to translate and understand your Japanese administrative documents.

How Do You Actually Book the Pickup?

Every ward and city in Japan runs its own sodai gomi system. There is no single national booking portal.

Step 1: Find your ward's sodai gomi contact page. Google "[your ward name] 粗大ごみ 申し込み" or use Google Translate to navigate to your city's official waste management page. If you live in Tokyo, most wards use the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's centralized sodai gomi system at sodai.metro.tokyo.lg.jp.

Step 2: Choose phone or online. Most wards offer both. Online booking is easier for non-Japanese speakers because you can run the page through Google Translate in Chrome. Phone booking exists but is Japanese-only in most cases. Calling is difficult unless your Japanese is functional or you have someone to help.

Step 3: Enter the required information.

Step 4: Note your collection number and the fee. The system will tell you exactly how much you owe and which voucher denomination to purchase.

Step 5: Buy the voucher sticker (shori ken) at any convenience store. 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart all carry them. Ask at the counter for "sodai gomi no shori ken" and show the amount. You pay cash. They print or hand you a sticker.

Warning Box The booking system in many wards will ask for your resident registration name exactly as it appears on your juminhyo (residence certificate). If you have a foreign name that was transliterated differently across documents, use the version on your residence card. Mismatches can cause booking errors or identification issues on collection day. Not sure how your documents read? The Document Decoder can help you parse what your official city hall paperwork actually says.

What Does It Cost, and How Do You Pay?

Fee ranges vary by item size and ward, but here is a realistic working range:

| Item | Typical Fee Range | |---|---| | Small item (fan, vacuum cleaner) | ¥400 to ¥800 | | Microwave, small shelf unit | ¥800 to ¥1,200 | | Single mattress or sofa | ¥1,000 to ¥1,800 | | Double mattress, large sofa | ¥1,500 to ¥2,500 | | Bicycle | ¥500 to ¥1,500 | | Bed frame (double) | ¥1,500 to ¥2,500 |

Some wards, including certain areas in Osaka and Sapporo, run occasional free collection days for small bulky items under a certain size threshold. Based on reports from foreign residents, these are rare and fill up quickly. Do not count on them if you are on a tight moving timeline.

Payment happens before collection. You buy the shori ken sticker at the convenience store in the correct yen amount, write your collection number on it (there is a small write-on field), and attach it to the item before you put it out.

This part trips up a lot of people.

You do not put sodai gomi on the public street. You place it at your building's designated collection point, which is the same spot your regular garbage bags go. In most apartment buildings this is a covered area at ground level, often with a metal gate or netting.

Collection time rules vary by ward, but the standard rule is: items must be placed by 8:00 a.m. on the collection morning. Placing items the night before is technically prohibited in most wards. In practice, based on common experience among foreign residents, some buildings tolerate evening placement. Do not assume this applies to yours.

The shori ken sticker must be visibly attached to the item. Collectors will not take items without a sticker. They also will not take items that were not registered in the booking system.

What if nobody collects it? If your item is not collected on the scheduled day, contact the ward office. This occasionally happens due to route scheduling errors. They will rebook you. Do not remove and rebook yourself without confirming, as double-booking causes confusion in the system.

Concrete scenario: A German software engineer on an Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa is relocating from Minato Ward, Tokyo back to Berlin. She has a sofa, a bicycle, and a washing machine to dispose of. She books the sofa and bicycle through Minato Ward's online sodai gomi system for ¥1,500 and ¥800 respectively, purchases two shori ken stickers at a nearby Lawson, and schedules pickup for 10 days before her lease ends. The washing machine, covered under the recycling law, is handled separately through a registered recycling shop that charges ¥3,500 for pickup. Total disposal cost: ¥5,800. She is done before the landlord's final inspection.

Reality Check The online booking system in most wards has no English version. Google Translate does a reasonable job on Chrome for Japanese municipal websites, but form fields sometimes break when translated. The safer approach: open the page in Chrome, enable translation, fill in fields in English, then double-check by temporarily switching back to Japanese to confirm the field labels. For items that require specific dimensions, measure in centimeters before you start, because the forms use metric only.

What If You Cannot Wait or Cannot Afford the Standard Process?

Timing is the real problem for most foreigners. The booking system often requires 1 to 3 weeks of lead time, and if you are leaving Japan in 10 days, that window may not work.

Sell it first. Mercari and Jmty (Jimoty) are both active secondhand platforms in Japan. Large furniture and appliances in decent condition sell faster than most people expect. A functional sofa in Tokyo can go for ¥3,000 to ¥15,000 depending on brand and condition. Post 2 to 3 weeks before your move date to give yourself negotiation time. Jmty tends to attract local buyers who will come pick up items themselves, which removes your disposal problem entirely.

Recycle shops. Chains like Hard Off, Book Off, and local "recycle-ya" shops will sometimes come to your apartment to assess and collect furniture. If the item has resale value, pickup is often free. If it does not, they may charge a fee of ¥1,000 to ¥3,000. Call ahead or check their websites. Some shops have English-speaking staff in major cities.

For people leaving Japan with no time: If you are departing and genuinely cannot manage the process, a licensed waste collection company (許可業者) can collect items at short notice for a higher fee, typically ¥5,000 to ¥15,000 for a single room clearance. Search "[your city] 不用品回収" to find licensed operators. Be cautious: unlicensed operators exist, and using one can still make you liable for improper disposal.

If you are managing the full departure process including residence deregistration, tax, and pension, the Leaving Japan Calculator can help you map out what needs to happen and in what order before you close out your registration.

Step-by-Step Checklist: Sodai Gomi Pickup from Start to Finish

  • Identify all items and confirm which are sodai gomi vs. recycling law items
  • Measure items in centimeters
  • Find your ward's sodai gomi booking page (Google: [ward name] + 粗大ごみ 申し込み)
  • Book online or by phone; note your booking number and confirmed fee
  • Go to a convenience store and buy shori ken sticker(s) in the correct amount
  • Write your booking number on the sticker
  • On collection morning, place item at your building's designated garbage spot by 8:00 a.m.
  • Attach the sticker visibly to the item
  • Confirm collection happened (check by end of day)

Your next step: Go to your ward's official website right now, search for "sodai gomi" in the search bar, and identify whether your ward uses the Tokyo Metropolitan booking system or a local portal. Do this at least three weeks before your move-out date. Three weeks sounds like a lot. It goes fast when you are also handling everything else that comes with leaving a Japanese apartment.

Can I dispose of multiple items at once in a single booking? Yes. Most ward booking systems allow you to list multiple items in one appointment. You will receive separate fees for each item and need to purchase separate shori ken stickers for each one. Place all items together at your collection point on the same morning with their respective stickers attached.

What if I live in a rural area or smaller city where the online system does not seem to work? Smaller municipalities often require phone booking only. Contact your local city or town office (市役所 or 町役場) directly and ask about sodai gomi collection. Some smaller municipalities have less frequent collection days, sometimes monthly only, so book as early as possible.

Do I need to speak Japanese to complete the booking process? Not necessarily. The online booking systems for most major wards work reasonably well through Chrome's built-in translation. Phone booking is genuinely difficult without Japanese. If you are not comfortable on the phone in Japanese, ask your building manager, a Japanese colleague, or your company's HR department for help making the call.

If you are in the middle of leaving Japan and dealing with a stack of administrative tasks alongside your disposal logistics, the Leaving Japan Calculator helps you track what financial and administrative obligations you still need to close out before your departure date. It covers residence deregistration, pension lump-sum refund timing, and tax clearance steps, so nothing falls through between your last sodai gomi pickup and your departure at the airport.