As the South Korean national soccer team came from behind to beat Australia in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in Qatar, one of the things that caught the attention of locals was the way Korean soccer fans cleaned up their trash after the game.
On the 3rd (local time), Qatari media outlet Al Qasr TV posted a video on Twitter, “Korean fans are cleaning up the stands at Al Janub Stadium after the match against Australia.” The video showed some Korean fans picking up trash from the stands.
The accompanying video showed some Korean fans carrying large garbage bags and picking up trash such as snack bags, plastic bottles, and hand flags that had fallen into the stands.
After watching the video, local social media users commented, “This is amazing. I admire you Korean fans,” and so on. However, when the story broke, Japanese sports media raised eyebrows.
On the same day, Japanese sports media outlet Football Zone published an article titled “‘Great’ Japanese Culture Spreads,” claiming that the South Korean fans picking up trash in the stands was the result of “the spread of Japanese culture.”
“Japanese fans have often been noted for picking up trash and cleaning up after games at major tournaments such as the World Cup,” the article said, “and their behavior on the field has been reported around the world as an example.”
“These attitudes have generated praise such as ‘I admire Japanese culture’ and ‘Japanese are awesome,'” he said, “and we’ve seen a ripple effect to fans in other countries. At the Asian Cup, Korean fans did the same, picking up trash and cleaning up after themselves. The ‘post-match cleanup’ culture is steadily 토토사이트 추천 spreading.”
Meanwhile, Kim Min-jae, who played as a defender for the South Korean national soccer team, was also in the news for cleaning up outside the stadium. After the game, Kim Min-jae, who was named as a doping test subject along with Lee Kang-in, cleaned up towels, snacks, and water bottles in the testing room after the Korean team’s doping test.
“I told Kim Min-jae that there were people cleaning the locker room and that we should wash up and go eat, but he kept cleaning,” said an official from the Korean national soccer team who was present at the time. “He said, ‘People here might say that Koreans didn’t clean up what they ate, so let’s clean up a little bit,’ and said, ‘I don’t need to hear that from a foreigner.