{"id":351854,"date":"2026-06-26T20:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351854\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:30:15","slug":"heres-what-japans-fans-are-bringing-to-world-cup-matchup-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351854\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s what Japan’s fans are bringing to World Cup matchup in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japanese soccer fans, a group that has gone viral this World Cup for cleaning up the stadiums before they leave and for their animated interviews to on-air reporters, are headed to Houston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Samurai Blue was the runner-up in Group\u00a0F<\/a> and will face Brazil, the winner of Group C, at Houston Stadium on Monday. Japan tied both the Netherlands and Sweden, and beat Tunisia to advance to the Round of 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game was good but I like barbecue,\u201d one Japan fan told Fanatics View.<\/p>\n

Interviews with Japan fans have been going viral on all platforms. In Dallas, Fox 4 anchor Tisia Muzinga went viral with a clip of her getting excited alongside a Japanese fan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I cannot speak English,” Hirochika Nakakuki said. “But, I’m excited!”<\/p>\n

Once\u00a0Nakakuki raised his voice,\u00a0\u00a0Muzinga replied with her voice just as loud.<\/p>\n

“I love it!” Yelled Muzinga back at him.<\/p>\n

The interview has been covered across the country with thousands of people commenting on posts about it, but the fans’ energy isn’t the only thing going viral this World Cup.<\/p>\n

The fans have also been popular online for what they bring to the stadiums they visit. Between the blue plastic bags they take for clean-up and the fun costumes, Japanese fans have shown up prepared for each game.<\/p>\n

The blue bags, which had \u201cJapan Pride\u201d written on them in Dallas, are part of a tradition spanning nearly 30 years <\/a>in which the fans walk up and down the aisles after the final whistle to clean up any trash in their section. The fans were joined by locals and former Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston in their efforts to clean up after their match against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

As for costumes, Japanese fans have gone all out. Some were spotted dressed as anime characters from \u201cDragon Ball\u201d<\/a> and \u201cNaruto,\u201d while others went viral for painting their faces white and putting on red clown noses, making themselves into the Japan flag.<\/p>\n

The match against Brazil kicks off at noon on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese soccer fans, a group that has gone viral this World Cup for cleaning up the stadiums before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-351854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}