“In their country, they leave everything in the hands of women and only make an effort in these kinds of actions when other people are watching them”…
Since France 1998, Japanese fans became the symbol of fair play off the field: bags in hand, spotless stands, gleaming locker rooms. In Dallas, during the 2026 World Cup, they did it again after the 2-2 draw against the Netherlands — and the cameras once again captured it all.
But this time the video that spread the most was not the one of the gesture itself, but of Japanese women questioning exactly that: that the cleaning appears when there is a camera nearby and disappears when there is not. According to the angle taken by the Mexican outlet Crónica, the criticism comes from within — from those who know the culture firsthand.
There is one fact that gives context to all this: since the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995, Japan removed almost all public trash cans, which forced citizens to take their waste with them. A genuine habit or a show for the world? 🤔