Japanese soccer fans captured the world’s attention at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, where they stayed behind after a 2-2 draw against the Netherlands to collect litter and bag up rubbish from the stands around them on Monday.
Minutes after Daichi Kamada scored to earn Japan a point in their opening World Cup group game, supporters were already on their feet with large plastic bags, tidying the space around them before they left.
Japanese fans first went viral for this behaviour at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and the circumstances that night made it remarkable.
Their team had just been knocked out in the last-16 by Belgium, despite leading 2-0, with the winning goal coming in the final minute. Yet their supporters still cleaned up before going home.
The players followed suit, leaving their dressing room spotless and placing a handwritten note inside that read “thank you” in Russian.
Four years later in Qatar, the fans continued the tradition, even as Japan delivered some of their most memorable results, beating Germany and Spain to top Group E.
Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu, who led the team at the 2022 tournament, offered a straightforward explanation for the behaviour saying, “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.”
