Reports from 2018 and 2022 described Japan’s dressing rooms being left clean, complete with a thank-you note and origami cranes. In the stands, Japanese fans have repeatedly gathered discarded food and drink containers after matches, sometimes encouraging supporters from other countries to join them.
The tradition is not presented as a publicity exercise. For Tsunoda, it is connected to respect for a shared space.
“Se algo é uma paixão com a qual você realmente se importa, você não quer deixar o lugar em desordem,” he said - “If something is a passion you truly care about, you do not want to leave the place in disorder.”
Tsunoda reportedly began attending major sporting events in 2008 and helping with stadium clean-ups. He has said that he once disliked cleaning his classroom as a child, before changing his outlook while helping collect rubbish at his daughter’s school.
His argument is simple: handling the waste left by others can make people less likely to drop their own rubbish. He also carries extra bags to matches and views clean-up work as an accessible entry point into volunteering, including support for communities affected by natural disasters.
The practice appears to begin well before fans reach a World Cup venue. Nozomi Morgan described Japanese schoolchildren changing from outdoor shoes into indoor footwear, carrying named *zokin* cleaning cloths and helping maintain classrooms, stairs and bathrooms.
She cited a saying that captures the ideal: “Um pássaro que voa nunca deixa rastros” - “A bird that flies never leaves a trace.”
At the next World Cup, Japan’s football will again attract attention. So will the behaviour around it. The lasting question is whether this quiet ritual continues to influence supporters long after the final whistle.