Supporters of the Japanese national soccer team have won admiration for their cleanup activity at a recent FIFA World Cup match in the United States, showing the Japanese custom of leaving a place cleaner than they found it.<\/p>\n
Supporters filled plastic bags with garbage after a Group F game between Japan and the Netherlands on Sunday near Dallas, Texas, which ended in a 2-2 draw. The 2026 World Cup is being hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n
FIFA praised their civic-minded behavior, pointing out that supporters of the Japanese team, nicknamed Samurai Blue, always clean up after themselves.<\/p>\n
Trash-picking efforts by Japanese supporters have become a hallmark of their presence at FIFA tournaments. The same behavior was evident at the 2018 World Cup in Russia as well, even after Japan lost.<\/p>\n
When the practice was reported during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu said: “For Japanese people, it’s just a matter of course. You have to leave a place cleaner than when you arrived.”<\/p>\n
This time, an unexpected supporter joined the cleanup activity. Jameis Winston, a quarterback for the New York Giants of the U.S. National Football League, was seen lending a hand while wearing the blue uniform of the Japanese team.<\/p>\n
Videos showing him joining the cleanup went viral, further highlighting the significance of the Japanese supporters’ conduct. Winston is attending the World Cup as a commentator for Fox Sports. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The cleanup effort became another example of how positive actions can leave a lasting impression beyond the competition itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":249329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[19602],"class_list":["post-249328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-asian"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/249329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elegant-fuchsia-orangutan.109-123-232-35.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}