Japanese Fans Clean Stadium After Historic World Cup Win vs Colombia - Source USA Today

Japanese soccer fans didn’t forget to pack their manners while traveling to Russia for the World Cup.

After cheering Japan to a 2-1 victory over Colombia on Tuesday, the fans pulled out garbage bags they brought along to pick up the trash around their seats in the Mordovia Arena.

“This is my favourite moment of the World Cup so far; Japan fans picking up litter after their victory vs Columbia,” Twitter user Christopher McKaig captioned a video capturing the good deed. “The lessons in life we can take from the game.”

Japanese fans were praised for similar actions at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where they stayed behind after the game to tidy up.

Japan-based sports journalist Scott McIntyre told the BBC he was not at all surprised by the post-game clean-up effort.

“It’s not just part of the football culture but part of Japanese culture,” he said. “You often hear people say that football is a reflection of culture. An important aspect of Japanese society is making sure that everything is absolutely clean and that’s the case in all sporting events and certainly also in football.”

Scott North, professor of sociology at Osaka University, told the outlet that cleanliness is a trait instilled in the country’s people from childhood.

“In addition to their heightened consciousness of the need to be clean and to recycle, cleaning up at events like the World Cup is a way Japanese fans demonstrate pride in their way of life and share it with the rest of us,” he explained. “What better place to make a statement about the need to care responsibly for the planet than the World Cup?”

The trend has seem to caught on with other nations as well. The Twitter account Infos Messi shared a video of fans of Senegal collecting garbage from their section after celebrating a 2-1 win over Poland.