The Kyoto Municipal Government enforced an ordinance Friday to deal with overflowing garbage at a resident's house.

After failing to persuade a man in his 50s to rid his house and an adjoining private road of mountains of garbage after meeting with him at least 60 times, a city official read out a declaration of enforcement at the site at 10 a.m., based on an ordinance on so-called garbage houses, and began removing the trash.

The resident was initially agitated as city officials, wearing masks, shuttled along the narrow road carrying the garbage, but then began actively participating in its removal and ended up thanking them, according to the city.

The house, currently vacant, is in Ukyo Ward. A 1.3-meter-wide road facing the entrance had been covered with a stack of garbage about 2 meters high, 0.9 meters wide and 4.4 meters long.

About 7.5 cu. meters of garbage, mostly old newspapers and magazines, was removed in two hours.

The city said it plans to charge the man about ¥10,000 for the work, including the cost of the plastic bags needed for the job, but will refrain from seeking specific payment for manpower and transportation costs.

Because there are a few other houses along the road, whose residents include a wheelchair user, the city deemed it necessary to settle the matter by force. It also removed garbage stacked on the second-floor balcony of his house because it was old and could have collapsed.

The city began dealing with the house in December 2009 after a neighbor complained. It enacted the ordinance in November 2014.

The city said it believed it was the first time in Japan that a "garbage house" ordinance had been enforced.

A Kyoto city official said it would continue to keep an eye on the man's situation to prevent garbage from piling up again.