The body of what police believe was a 69-year-old male was discovered by a worker at the landfill site off Tokyo Bay in a pile of garbage brought in by a road sweeping vehicle, the Yomiuri Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun reported.
It is thought the victim was lying down in the street in the early hours of Tuesday morning when he was hit, the Fuji News Network said, adding that his shoes had been found by the road and that his body was full of fractured bones.
The driver of the truck has told police that he did not notice anything unusual while operating the machine, other reports said.
Police believe the man to have been a resident of Sumida ward in Tokyo, where the truck operated late Monday night through to Tuesday morning, the Sankei Shimbun said.