[coldtea]

Or the parent's comment is a big of exaggeration to downplay the general cleanliness.

Compared to most major global cities it's night and day.

I'd take a hard look on NY, Chicago, L.A, London, Paris, Amsterdam, before I complain like the grandparent about the Japanese situation which is an order of magnitude better...

Tokyo of course is on a league of its own, but here's Osaka Street View, go around, how does it compare to what you read?

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.675107,135.5261238,3a,75y,27...

[Consultant32452]

Someone may have a better answer, but I did a google search for worst parts of Osaka. I got Kabikucho as an answer:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6960715,139.7029924,3a,75y,2...

We can compare that to a random spot in skid row, LA.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0413292,-118.2437281,3a,75y,...

[Rapzid]

Well Kabikucho is in Tokyo haha. It gets really bad every night and they clean it up in the mid morning. At around 7am it's shocking how dirty it is; a complete mind blower compared to how clean you get used to everything being.

[coldtea]

Well, this is supposedly Osaka's "dirty" place:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6687543,135.5013888,2a,75y,3...

[Tempest1981]

Ah hah, 3 cigarettes at the man's feet: https://goo.gl/maps/nXUmRVou6wV86RJMA

[coldtea]

To their defense, they're on a grill -- just didn't manage to fall through!

(Now let's compare with the sorry state a lot of European cities are in)