By: Natasha Archary

Last year at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Japanese football fans left the world in awe when they stayed behind after matches to clean the entire stadium before they left.
The Japanese believe in respecting their opponents and say they were taught from a young age to never leave rubbish behind because it’s disrespectful.
As part of the Japanese culture, schools teach children to clean up after themselves, and it’s part of their daily practice to always pick up litter if they spot it, which is why streets throughout Japan are always spotless.
With the absence of public dustbins, Japanese people take their rubbish home to dispose of it.
As was displayed by the Japanese football fans who carried their own refuse bags into the stadiums, to ensure that they could collect all rubbish before they leave.
These Japanese fans showed up everyone at the World Cup by cleaning up the stadium after the match. #japan #japanese #fans #worldcup #fifa #qatar #fifaworldcup #japanworldcup #japanesefans pic.twitter.com/FI37oY1Vs1
— Empact News (@EmpactNews) November 25, 2022
In stark contrast, this is not the case with South Africans who leave venues and public places in a state with rubbish all over the place, because the mindset is that somebody else will pick up after them.
With this in mind, Thomas and Skhumba asked listeners if they had an expectation on guests to stay and help clean up, after they have visited, stayed or attended an event that they had been invited to.
The responses were mixed with some listeners saying they did expect guests to at the least, offer to help them to tidy up before they leave, especially if they brought their kids over, and others saying, they will not stay to help clean up because they were invited.
“The one thing that I hate is when parents don’t clean up after their kids, or teach their kids how to respect another person’s home.
If you’re bringing your kids over for a play date or we’re having a family dinner, and your kids are making a mess, throwing toys all over the place, or dropping food and drinks, how are you not cleaning that up?
How can you expect someone else to clean up your kids’ mess? No, that’s just wrong. Regardless of whether it was my kids toys, or your kids toys, teach them to clean up and help to tidy up after they play or make a mess.”



