CNN Sports<\/a>, \u201cyou take off your \u2018outside shoes\u2019 and change into \u2018inside shoes,\u2019 you want to keep the inside as clean as possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n\n But that was just the beginning, her parents had packed her off to school with a Zokin, which she would need every day. \u201cEach child has their own rag, several pieces of recycled fabric, hand-sewn together, with their names on it,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember specifically the first assignment was to clean the classroom.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n All the chairs and desks would be moved to the front; the children would sweep it up and then they would clean the floor with their little rags: \u201cIt kind of felt like a little game that you play cleaning up, it wasn\u2019t like a chore, it\u2019s just something that we all did together.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Morgan says that through elementary and middle school, they cleaned everywhere, sweeping leaves on the stairs and even the bathrooms.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s a saying: \u2018A bird that flies never leaves a trace,\u2019\u201d Morgan said.\n <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gettyimages-2113298520a.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
\n However, not everyone loved that classroom experience.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI hated every minute of it,\u201d Hirokazu Tsunoda told CNN. \u201cI resented it, I used to think, \u2018Why do we even have to do this? Japanese classrooms aren\u2019t that dirty to begin with, and everyone uses the bins anyway.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n You\u2019d never know he used to feel this way. Since 2008, he\u2019s been attending the Olympic Games and World Cups, always helping to clean up the mess left by the supporters in the arenas.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a place where you can do whatever you like simply because you paid for a ticket,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s a sacred space. If something is a passion you truly care about, you don\u2019t want to leave the place that matters to you in a mess. So, you pick it up.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Tsunoda says that it wasn\u2019t until he was an adult, helping to clear up the litter at his daughter\u2019s school that he truly appreciated the value or cleaning up, or not making a mess to begin with.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere are genuinely people out there who talk badly about the Japanese fans picking up trash at stadiums, saying things like \u2018They just want the attention\u2019 or \u2018It\u2019s only for show.\u2019 But what I want to say to those people is: Just try it once.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPicking up someone else\u2019s half-eaten food or half-finished drink is unpleasant, no question. But once you\u2019ve had that experience, you are far less likely to become someone who litters in the first place.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Tsunoda has become the unofficial spokesman for the spotless fans, but he makes clear that he\u2019s only following the example of the neatnik supporters who came before him. And it\u2019s not just the cheering squad on the terraces \u2013 the team is immaculate too.\n <\/p>\n
\n Win or lose, in the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the locker room was spotless after the games, the only sign of their presence was a thank you note and some origami cranes.\n <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gettyimages-2241982245.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Eight years ago, Makoto Hasebe was the captain of the Japan team in Russia. Speaking to the media, he said, \u201cI am truly proud of our staff. The same goes for the supporters. Since I usually live abroad and have had many opportunities to visit various countries with the national team, I often feel that there is no country with streets as clean as Japan\u2019s.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI believe that Japan as a place and the Japanese people possess a wonderful spirit. I am proud of this, not just as a football player, but as a Japanese citizen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Tsunoda says that he brings extra trash bags to games and supporters of other countries are joining in.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere are often more non-Japanese people helping out than Japanese ones,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in those moments, I make a point of calling out loudly and praising them, \u2018Thank you!\u2019 I think being praised by a Japanese person in a foreign country feels good, and I believe it makes them want to do it again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n After a thrilling comeback win against Germany in Qatar four years ago, the fans made sure that everybody won. A video of the cleanup went viral, and FIFA praised the effort on social media.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAround 500 stadium volunteers came together from all over the venue just to thank us. That, to me, felt like something truly significant,\u201d Tsunoda said, responding to some critics who say the fastidious fans might be denying job opportunities in the arenas.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAt the end of the day, the stadium gets clean, nobody loses, and the volunteers and cleaning staff get to go home early.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Team](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-03-31t210739z-888865282-up1em3v1mopsl-rtrmadp-3-soccer-friendly-eng-jpn.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
\n Tsunoda believes that selfless trash collection is the gateway to volunteering more broadly, figuring out ways to benefit everyone.\n <\/p>\n
\n He says that he\u2019s helped over 200 times at the scenes of natural disasters and, with the help of community fundraising, he\u2019s able to bring impacted children to the World Cup and give them a positive experience. He says that seven youngsters from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake will be at the game against the Netherlands in Dallas.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy own definition of volunteering is this: \u2018patching over someone else\u2019s problem.\u2019 So, it\u2019s not that going to volunteer in a disaster zone or traveling to Nepal to help is somehow superior.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt can genuinely be picking up litter. It can be giving up your seat for an elderly person. It can be saying, \u2018Let me carry that,\u2019 to someone struggling with heavy bags.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOf all the ways to patch over someone else\u2019s problem, I think picking up litter has the lowest barrier and the widest entry point. And I believe that foundation, that base instinct for volunteering, exists in most Japanese people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary Japanese fans have become known for cleaning up stadiums after World Cup matches. Volunteer Hirokazu Tsunoda says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-492260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}