Abstract: With the improvement of productivity, peoples material life is greatly enriched, and much garbage is produced in city life, which brings serious hidden danger to people’s living environment and health. Japan, a neighboring country, has made great achievements in the treatment of municipal household waste by popularizing the mechanism of garbage classification and recycling of resources. Learning from the advanced experience of Japan and other countries is of great practical significance to solve the problem of municipal household waste treatment in China. It is a common research idea to compare the advanced experiences of different countries and find common points for reference. The indepth analysis of the characteristics of waste management in specific countries may help to analyze the reasons for the different effects of the same policy in different countries. Based on this problem awareness, this paper intends to analyze the influencing factors of citizen participation behavior in municipal household waste classification in Japan from the perspective of national character.

Key words: Japan, garbage classification, citizen participation, national character