A member of the “bika no kai” or “cute deer” garbage patrol squad watches a deer during the daily cleaning routine to prevent the deer from eating garbage at Nara Park in Nara on January 27, 2025.AFP / Philip Fong
By AFP - Agence France Presse
The squad saving deer from tourist trash in Nara, Japan
Tomohiro Osaki
NARA, Japan - While hungry deer chase enchanted tourists in Japan's temple-filled Nara Park, discreet but dedicated garbage collectors patrol the stone paths, collecting plastic waste that threatens the animals' health.
The ancient city of Nara is a major draw for the country's record influx of visitors. Still, as in nearby Kyoto, where photo-hungry crowds have been accused of disturbing the famous geishas, there have been undesirable consequences.
Tourists can only feed the deer with special rice cookies sold in Nara, but the animals are increasingly eating garbage by accident.
“More and more people are throwing away their leftover food or snack wrappers in the park,” said Nobuyuki Yamazaki of the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation. ”The plastic items can accumulate in the deer's stomach for a long time, leading to their death from weakness.”
Some activists have even removed pieces of plastic waste from the carcasses of deer in Nara.
Armed with gloves, tweezers, and dustpans, the park's waste collection squad - called Beautiful Deer - is fighting back. The team, which mainly employs people with disabilities, has been collaborating with Yamazaki's foundation for several years.
Around half a dozen Beautiful Deer employees patrol the park in bright green jackets, unperturbed by the excited shouts of tourists surrounded by their hoofed friends.
For many members, “the idea that they are contributing to society is at the heart of their motivation,” said squad supervisor Masahito Kawanishi.
No garbage cans
Around 1,300 wild deer roam the vast park, which has been their home since the 8th century, as legend has it, acting as divine envoys to a Shinto shrine.
Attracted in part by the weak yen, 36.8 million foreign visitors came to Japan last year, a new record that the government wants to almost double to 60 million a year by 2030.
But residents and authorities in tourist hotspots, from traditional Kyoto to towns near majestic Mount Fuji, are increasingly frustrated by overcrowding, traffic violations, and the bad behavior of some visitors.
Nara Park is no exception, especially when it comes to littering. The park has no public garbage cans - a policy introduced around four decades ago to prevent deer from scouring the site in search of food.
Instead, visitors are encouraged to take their garbage home with them - an ingrained habit in Japan that is not always shared by outsiders, said Yamazaki.
“Maybe it's hard to expect the park to remain empty of trash cans forever,” he said.
With cultural differences in mind, the Nara authorities are testing high-tech, solar-powered garbage cans near the park in a 20 million yen (7.5 million dollars) project.
The garbage cans can automatically compress waste and have the slogan: “Save the Nara deer from plastic waste”.
Public garbage cans are scarce throughout Japan, with one theory being that the deadly sarin gas attacks on the subway in 1995, carried out by a doomsday cult, caused them to be removed.
Gawel Golecki, a 40-year-old Polish man who regularly visits Japan, said he now keeps his garbage with him.
“It's a bit strange for us,” he said. “(In Europe) there's always somewhere to throw it.”
French tourist Arnaud Bielecki, 56, said it was “a shame that the deer eat the plastic left behind by visitors,” adding that the Beautiful Deer squad should be supported: “I'm glad there's a program like this.”
tmo/kaf/dhw
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