The cleanup goes global
Until the smartphone era, this was a localized phenomenon, a curious factoid in a guidebook to Japan. But these days civility, much like rudeness, can ride a stream of shares and retweets to the far corners of the world. If a president’s dire threats to annihilate a civilization can instantaneously go global, so too can videos of fans on their hands and knees, filling trash bags.
Saad Abid, a Moroccan environmentalist and social media influencer, did not need to import o-soji into his country’s schools to organize a stadium cleanup in Doha; he needed only a phone, a stack of trash bags, and the example of others who had done it before him. Neither Senegal nor Morocco shares Japan’s specific civic infrastructure. They share, instead, the willingness to watch what others do and decide to do it too.
Which brings us to the World Cup this summer. Japan is in Group F, opening against the Netherlands at Dallas Stadium on Jun.14 before heading to Monterrey to face Tunisia. Senegal is in Group I, drawn against France at MetLife on Jun. 16. Morocco opens against Brazil, also at MetLife, on Jun. 13. The three nations whose fans have already demonstrated the habit are all here, on this stage, in front of cameras.