FIFA World Cup 2022: Why Japanese fans are cleaning stadiums

The final whistle blew out loud on Sunday, and moments after wallowing over their loss to Costa Rica, the fans of Japan pulled out their blue trash bags and began meticulously cleaning the stands at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Qatar, picking up the garbage scattered across the rows of seats around them.

It didn’t matter what the trash was — orange peels to empty plastic bottles or even dirty napkins — nor did it matter who had thrown it. The Blue Samurais, as the fans of the Japanese national team are called, went through each aisle picking up the litter and then handing it over to the stadium workers on their way out.

The simple act of picking up garbage after each match — irrespective of the results — has earned the Blue Samurais a lot of love and praise from across the world.

The act of cleaning up isn’t only for the fans. The Japanese national squad also follows the same principle and their locker room is a prime example. After pulling off a stunning victory against Germany last week, images of a spotless locker room emerged. The towels were left neatly folded up, no sweaty clothes could be seen hanging on hangers and the water bottles appeared as if they were untouched. There were also origami paper cranes — 11 to represent each player on the team — and a message that read “thank you” in Japanese and Arabic.

This isn’t the first World Cup where they have grabbed headlines for their clean-up skills; in 2018, after their heart-breaking defeat in the final moments of their last 16 round with Belgium, they earned massive respect when they cleared up the Rostov Arena in Russia.

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But, why do they do it? Is it a habit or a favour? We find out.

Cleaning culture

While images of the Japanese fans cleaning up has stunned many across the globe, it’s not out of the ordinary for them.

“What you think is special is actually nothing unusual for us,” Danno, a Japanese fan, was quoted as telling Al Jazeera.

Another supporter was quoted as saying after their team’s win against Germany, “Our heart is clean, so the stands must be clean. This means the team reaches its destiny.”

A third supporter added: “What we’re taught is that leaving things cleaner than the way you found it is atarimae. And that we should always express gratitude.”

Atarimae roughly translates as ‘stating the obvious’ which is fair enough in that if you see rubbish, it should be cleared up.

Japan supporters clean the stands at the end of the World Cup group E soccer match between Germany and Japan, at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. File image/AP

Even Hajime Moriyasu, coach of the Japanese team echoed the same sentiments, “For Japanese people, this is just a normal thing to do. When you leave a place, you have to leave it cleaner than it was before,” he was quoted as saying by New York Times.

Tidiness at public spaces in Japan is considered a virtue and children are taught from a very young age to clean up their classrooms and school facilities on a regular basis.

In fact, cleaning time is part of a student’s daily schedule while he/she is in school. Maiko Awane, assistant director of Hiroshima Prefectural Government’s Tokyo office, told BBC, “For 12 years of school life, from elementary school to high school, cleaning time is part of students’ daily schedule.”

She added, “In our home life as well, parents teach us that it’s bad for us not to keep our things and our space clean.”

This clean-up culture isn’t a new characteristic. In the biography of mariner Will Adams, who was the first Englishman to set foot in Japan, the author, Giles Milton, wrote, ‘the nobility were scrupulously clean’, enjoying ‘pristine sewers and latrines’ and steam baths of scented wood at a time when the streets of England ‘often overflowed with excrement’. The Japanese ‘were appalled’ by the Europeans’ disregard for personal cleanliness.

Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney, Dr Masafumi Monden, said Japanese children are taught in primary school to clean up after themselves.

“My understanding is, we are taught, from primary school, to keep what we use clean, for example, the classroom,” he said.

“There is a Japanese saying ‘Tatsu tori ato wo nigosazu,’ literally: the bird taking flight doesn’t muddy its tracks’,” adding, “This means when you leave a place, don’t leave it a mess, but leave it at least as clean as the condition you found it in.

“While, of course, not everyone follows that even in Japan, ideas like this are embedded into our thinking and practice, to show respect and value what we use.”

But what’s the obsession about cleanliness?

Japan’s preoccupation with cleaning and organising can be attributed to religion. Cleanliness is a central part of Buddhism, which is the main religion in Japan. The religion teaches the importance of cleanliness as it directly correlates with having a peaceful mind. Therefore, it has become custom to take responsibility of the mess and dispose of garbage at home.

Also, before the arrival of Buddhism in Japan, the country had its own religion called Shinto, in which cleanliness was at the heart of it all. In Shinto, cleanliness is godliness.

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Besides religion, there’s also the historical and practical side to it. Historically, Japan has suffered from numerous epidemics in the past. Around 1,300 years ago, Japan was swept by a smallpox epidemic. The epidemic is thought to have taken the lives of over one million people, roughly 25 per cent to 35 per cent of the population at the time.

Later, in 1998, Japan’s Nagano witnessed a flu outbreak during the Winter Olympics. Nearly 900,000 people became ill and at least 20 people, including 17 schoolchildren and three elderly people, died due to the flu virus. Years later, Japan also recorded a swine flu outbreak.

This made Japan realise the importance of cleanliness and they become very aware of keeping their surroundings clean.

There are also the practical concerns. In a hot, humid environment like Japan’s, food goes off quickly. Bacteria flourish. Bug life abounds. So good hygiene means good health.

So, as the World Cup progresses, fans and netizens can expect to see the Blue Samurais in action, cleaning up and perhaps, who knows, the world will pick up after them.

After all, the Japanese were also instrumental in making Pokemon and sushi a worldwide favourite.

With inputs from agencies

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