world cup in qatar<\/span> This situation is certain to continue in 2022, even when Japan opens group games in June in Arlington, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico.<\/p>\nFor foreigners who are used to leaving stadiums and stepping over half-eaten food, shredded paper wrappers and empty or dripping cups, the cleaning is surprising.<\/p>\n
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Japanese players famously cleaned the locker room after losing and left letters of gratitude in Russian. In 2022, fans left messages of gratitude written in Arabic, English, and Japanese on garbage bags.<\/p>\n
I will explain the reason using Japanese phrases.<\/h2>\n
It’s not that complicated. Starting in elementary school, students are socialized to behave this way in classrooms, schoolyards, and playgrounds.<\/p>\n
“Japanese sports fans who attend world championships and clean stadiums are doing much the same thing they did when they learned how to enjoy sports as students,” Koichi Nakano, a professor of politics and history at Sophia University, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
There’s a Japanese word to explain it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTatsu Toori o Nigotozu.\u201d<\/p>\n
The literal translation is “Birds leave nothing behind.” <\/p>\n
The message displayed in English is: “Please return it the way you found it.”<\/p>\n
Many elementary schools in Japan do not have janitors, so cleaning tasks are left to the students. Office workers often spend time sprucing up their areas.<\/p>\n
Additionally, there are relatively few trash cans in public spaces in Japan, so people tend to take their trash home with them. This will keep your sidewalks clean, save you the cost of emptying trash cans, and keep pests away.<\/p>\n
“The way most regular soccer fans experience soccer at school is no different from other sports. There is an emphasis on moral education as well as physical education,” Nakano added.<\/p>\n
group versus individual<\/h2>\n
Barbara Holthus, who grew up in Germany, is deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. As a sociologist, she agrees that it is wise not to disrespect the Japanese. Like any other country, Japan has its own challenges and shortcomings.<\/p>\n
“The academically correct explanation is that Japanese people just happen to be socialized differently,” she told The Associated Press. “If you grow up learning a certain way about how things are done, that applies even to cleaning the stadium afterwards.”<\/p>\n
The Japanese concept of “meiwaku”, which means not to cause trouble or inconvenience to others, is also at work here. From the Japanese perspective, leaving trash at the stadium is a nuisance to others.<\/p>\n
Japan is a relatively populous place, with approximately 35 million people in the Tokyo area alone, which is roughly the population of the entire state of California. People need to get along.<\/p>\n
“Japanese people learn early on that they don’t want to bother other people,” Holthus says. <\/p>\n
She said there is often a focus on groups compared to Western countries where the emphasis is on the individual and individual rights.<\/p>\n
“We don’t want to cause trouble to people, and that applies to all areas of Japanese life,” Holthus added. “We’ve been taught[in Western countries]that we don’t have to clean up after ourselves in public because some public service will do it for us.”<\/p>\n
And as the Japanese have received widespread praise for their cleanup efforts, their actions have intensified.<\/p>\n
“Now that the media has taken notice of this report and lavished praise on Japanese fans, they are proud to display their values \u200b\u200band norms,” \u200b\u200bJeff Kingston, a history professor at Temple University in Japan, wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Japanese tradition<\/h2>\n
The tradition of cleaning is not limited to famous football tournaments. The same thing happened at last year’s U-20 World Cup in Chile, when Japanese fans were cleaning up after the game. And more recently, last month, Japan defeated England 1-0 in an international friendly at London’s Wembley Stadium.<\/p>\n
“This is one of our traditions,” said Toshi Yoshizawa, who was leading the cleanup in Chile. \u201cWe grew up being taught that we should leave a place cleaner than when we arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n
William Kelly, professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale University and Japan expert, says this tradition is more tied to soccer than any other sport. He speculated that it may have something to do with the creation of Japan’s professional soccer league more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n
“The J.League sought to differentiate itself from baseball by emphasizing the team’s closeness and dedication to the community,” Kelly wrote in an email. \u201cFootball fans felt part of the club and the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP World Cup coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
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