After living in Japan for a month, one of the things that intrieged me the most was the children's melody that could be heard on the streets. To me, this sounded like the music that would play from an ice cream truck, however this could not be the case since it was December.
So I did some research and found that the song comes, not from an ice cream truck, but instead from a garbage truck. Garbage trucks play a medoly to notify the residents of the area that it is trash day and that they should be taking out their trash soon. This helps to make trash collection speedy while also shortening the time that trash needs to be left outside. This is not specific to only Japan, other countries Taiwan and Iran also have music garbage trucks. The music that is played in played on these trucks are classical pieces like Beethoven's "Für Elise" and "A Maiden's Prayer". Though the trucks in Oska opted to play a completely different tune.
Further research led me to finding the name of the song, which is「小鳥の来る街」（A Town Where Small Birds Come）. This song is specific to Osaka and was created in 1966 as a part of the Osaka City Basic Greenery Plan which started in 1964. The Osaka City Basic Greenery Plan was created to increase the amount of greenery in Osaka and to help the decarbonization process and to become a "Zero Carbon Osaka" by 2050.
Because 「小鳥の来る街」was created for Osaka, other prefectures play 「赤とんぼ」, or the previously mentioned classical tunes to signal trash collection.
So I did some research and found that the song comes, not from an ice cream truck, but instead from a garbage truck. Garbage trucks play a medoly to notify the residents of the area that it is trash day and that they should be taking out their trash soon. This helps to make trash collection speedy while also shortening the time that trash needs to be left outside. This is not specific to only Japan, other countries Taiwan and Iran also have music garbage trucks. The music that is played in played on these trucks are classical pieces like Beethoven's "Für Elise" and "A Maiden's Prayer". Though the trucks in Oska opted to play a completely different tune.
Further research led me to finding the name of the song, which is「小鳥の来る街」（A Town Where Small Birds Come）. This song is specific to Osaka and was created in 1966 as a part of the Osaka City Basic Greenery Plan which started in 1964. The Osaka City Basic Greenery Plan was created to increase the amount of greenery in Osaka and to help the decarbonization process and to become a "Zero Carbon Osaka" by 2050.
Because 「小鳥の来る街」was created for Osaka, other prefectures play 「赤とんぼ」, or the previously mentioned classical tunes to signal trash collection.
