Why You May See Japanese Soccer Fans Cleaning Up The Stadium After World Cup Games

If there's one country guaranteed to clean up at the World Cup, it's Japan. Literally. Buzz: Stephen Colbert Reveals 1 Of His Final 'Late Show' Guests: 'I Will Be Sitting Down With...

' Scenes of Japanese soccer fans sweeping stadiums and picking up trash after a match first drew public attention in France in 1998 — Japan's first appearance in the World Cup. The tradition has continued every four years. It happened at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, and it's certain to continue when Japan opens play in June with group games in Arlington, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico.

The cleanup astonishes non-Japanese who might be accustomed to leaving stadiums and stepping over half-eaten food, shredded paper wrappers, and cups — empty or with liquid dribbling out. At the World Cup in Russia in 2018, Japanese players famously cleaned the dressing room after a loss and left a thank-you note in Russian. In 2022, fans left thank-you notes on rubbish bags written in Arabic, English and Japanese.

Buzz: Sydney Sweeney’s R-Rated Film Tanked At The Box Office — Now It’s A Top Movie On HBO Max A Japanese phrase explains why It's not that complicated. Beginning in elementary school, students are socialized to behave this way — in the classroom, in the school yard or on a playing field. “Japanese sports fans at world events who clean up the stadium are behaving much the same way they did when they learned how to enjoy sports as school boys and girls,” Koichi Nakano, who teaches politics and history at Sophia University, told The Associated Press.