Instructions & packaging

There are instructions everywhere about everything. A hairbrush has instructions for brushing your hair, a toothpaste - instructions for brushing your teeth, a toilet seat - instructions on how to use that!


Everything also comes with excessive packaging, partly so you can have the instruction manual for your nail clipper, and partly so it looks pretty. The hair brush comes with a case, on top of which there's a plastic wrapper, and they won't forget to give you a plastic bag on top of that. The bento box (packaged lunch in a train station) is already a box with a plastic lid, which then is wrapped in plastic. When you order it, they put tape around it AND put in a plastic bag. Etc, etc.

I guess when the Japanese drafted the Kyoto protocol, they thought plastic was good for the environment.