The secret of Japanese fans cleaning stadium stands after World Cup matches

Japanese fans caught attention as they cleaned the stadium stands after the matches in their country’s first participation in the 1998 World Cup, which was held in France.

The Japanese continued this approach every four years, and repeated it in the last edition, Qatar 2022, and it is expected that they will continue during their country’s national team’s matches in June in the cities of Arlington, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico, in the first round of the 2026 World Cup.

The behavior of the Japanese fans raised the astonishment of others of other nationalities who were accustomed to leaving the stadiums without paying attention to the leftover food, scattered paper, and empty or dripping cups.

In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Japanese players cleaned the locker rooms after bidding farewell to the tournament, and wrote a message of thanks in Russian, and in the 2022 World Cup, Japanese fans left messages of thanks on garbage bags written in three languages: Arabic, English, and Japanese.

This habit is not considered strange to the Japanese masses, who have been accustomed to this behavior in schools from an early age.

In this regard, Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science and history at Sofia University, told the Associated Press, “Japanese fans who clean stadiums at world championships are behaving the way they were raised since childhood.”

There is a Japanese phrase that explains this: “tatsu tori atō wo nigusazō,” which literally translates to “a bird leaves nothing behind,” while in English it means “leave everything as you found it.”

Many Japanese elementary schools do not have cleaners, so cleaning is the students’ job, and the staff also takes time to clean their desks.

The number of garbage containers in public places in Japan is relatively small, as people transport their waste from home themselves, which contributes to clean roads and also saves the expense of emptying garbage bins, and also eliminates the spread of insects.

German-born sociologist Barbara Holthus, who works as deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, tends not to overestimate the actions of the Japanese people, and added that the Asian country suffers from negatives like any other country.

“The sound academic explanation is that people in Japan are brought up with different customs,” Holthus told the Associated Press. “If someone is raised with a certain way of doing things, they will apply it in their lives, even cleaning the stadiums after matches.”

This behavior is also due to the Japanese concept “miwako”, which means not to cause problems or disturb others. Japanese people believe that the accumulation of garbage in the streets bothers others.

Holthus added, “No one in Japan wants to disturb others, while we were raised in the West that we are not obligated to clean public places after using them, because someone will take care of this task.”

“This behavior has become a source of pride for the Japanese after the media highlighted and praised it,” Jeff Kingston, a history professor at Temple University in Japan, wrote in an email.

Japanese fans do not only adhere to this habit in major tournaments, but they repeated it in the Under-20 World Cup held in Chile last year in 2025, as well as after Japan’s victory over England with a goal without a response in a friendly match held at Wembley Stadium in March.

“This tradition is more related to football than to other sports,” said William Kelly, professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale University and a specialist in Japanese affairs, and suggested that it is likely linked to the founding of the Japanese professional football league more than 30 years ago.