There has been an increasing trend for the installation of pipeline waste collection systems for household waste in the massive complexes of new houses in Korea. This trend is attributed to the advantages of the system, which can reduce traffic congestion and keep the residential areas clean. The system also prevents odors and facilitates the easy discharge of waste by residents any time. However, several problems have been identified, whereby the installation and maintenance costs of the system are considerable and the system does not support separate discharge of recyclable wastes. For example, residents normally discharge food waste separate from disposable municipal solid waste at the waste drop, but some of the systems mix them at the bottom and transfer them together, which goes against resources recirculation, an important point of current waste management principles. Investigation into other countries’ experiences of the installation and operation of these systems will be a good lesson for Korea. Therefore, we studied Japan’s case, because they have a number of these systems between the 1970s and early 1990s as government-subsidized model projects led by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. However, it was done at a time when the reduction of discharge of wastes and recycling were not considered significant owing to rapid economic development, only focusing on the convenience of waste collection and transportation. Furthermore, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions were not priorities to be considered. Now that the systems are not suitable for the current resource recycling-oriented society, none have been installed since 2002, and many facilities have been closed already, with a few facilities operating with difficulties. Therefore, the installation of pipeline collection systems for household waste should be further considered with appropriate measures to avoid the precedent experiences of Japan.