'Clean up at home first': Japan fans praised abroad for stadium tidying, mocked at home

Japanese soccer fans are drawing international praise at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North and Central America for staying behind after matches to clean up stadiums — but the gesture is drawing sharp criticism back home.

According to the BBC on Thursday, photos of Japanese male fans carrying trash bags and tidying the stands at World Cup venues have gone viral, prompting accusations of a double standard in Japan. Critics say the men are happy to clean up public spaces while leaving housework to their wives.

One image posted by a Japanese user on X has attracted particular attention online. It depicts a Japanese male soccer fan picking up litter at a stadium alongside a contrasting scene of a man lying on a sofa scrolling through his phone at home while his spouse does the dishes.

The image carried the messages: "Japanese men are among those who do the least housework in the world — they should participate more at home too" and "Please do it at home as well."

The post received more than 60,000 likes. One user said there were "surely people in that crowd who left young children at home, put their wives in charge of childcare, and came to watch the World Cup."

Keeping public spaces clean and tidying up after oneself is widely regarded as a hallmark of Japanese civic culture. Japanese fans cleaning up stadium litter has become a recurring talking point at the World Cup and other international sporting events, consistently drawing positive reactions abroad.

However, the BBC said the picture looks very different when it comes to the division of household labor at home.

According to 2021 OECD data, Japanese men spent an average of just 47 minutes a day on unpaid work — the lowest figure among major developed nations.

Japanese women, by contrast, devoted more than three hours a day to housework and caregiving, spending more than five times as many hours on unpaid labor as men, the data showed.

The gap is even more pronounced in dual-income households with young children. A 2021 Japanese government survey found that in households where both partners work and have children under six, women spent more than seven hours a day on housework and childcare, while men spent less than two hours.

Some users were also critical of the stadium cleanup culture itself. They noted that while Japanese fans make a point of picking up litter at overseas events, trash is often left unattended at large domestic events in Japan.

Others, however, said the cleanup behavior deserves credit on its own terms. One X user rebuffed the criticism, asking, "Why is that something to be ashamed of?" and adding that it was "far better than seeing news reports of Japanese people littering abroad."

The practice appears to be spreading to fans of other nations. Videos recently circulated on social media showing Portuguese fans carrying large plastic bags and collecting trash from the stands, with users crediting Japanese fans for starting the trend.

The BBC said "while the debate over the division of household labor continues, many argue that the Japanese fans' iconic stadium cleanup tradition is not something to be criticized but a behavior to be encouraged."