The image of the Japanese team's dressing room at the World Cup surprised netizens
Japan began its journey at the 2026 World Cup with a match against the Netherlands team on June 15 at Dallas Stadium, Arlington city (Texas, USA).
Even though they were rated somewhat lower than their opponents, the Japanese players played very bravely and were not inferior to their opponents, excellently holding to a draw with one of the candidates for this year's tournament championship.
Not only did Japanese players make a strong impression on the field, they also made a splash off the field with their beautiful and meaningful actions.
Recently, German sports photojournalist Maja Hitij shared images of the Japanese team's dressing room after the match against the Netherlands ended.
Hitij said that after the match, the players and logistics staff of the Japanese team worked together to clean the locker room before leaving.
Images shared by Hitij show that trash is carefully collected in plastic bags, bib shirts and towels are neatly folded, and there are almost no signs of sand or dirt brought in by the players from the field.
These images were spread quickly on social networks, many netizens did not hesitate to praise the players and staff of the Japanese team.
Notably, this is not the first time the Japanese team has left a beautiful image in the dressing room at World Cups.
At the 2018 World Cup taking place in Russia, the Japanese team suffered defeat to Belgium in the round of 16. After this last match, the Japanese players cleaned up the locker room before leaving, not forgetting to leave a message written on paper saying "Thank you" in Russian.
At the 2022 World Cup, the Japanese team continued to have to stop in the round of 16 after an unfortunate defeat to the Croatian team in the penalty shootout.
After the match, the Japanese players also cleaned up the locker room before leaving, and left behind paper cranes and a message written on paper saying "Thank you" in Japanese and Arabic.
Not only do the players impress in the locker room, the image of Japanese fans staying on the field after the match to pick up trash in the stands has also become familiar at World Cups.
On FIFA's official Facebook page, a video was recently shared showing Japanese fans picking up trash at Dallas Stadium after the match with the Dutch team ended. The video quickly attracted more than 44 million views and more than 2.2 million expressions of emotion after just a short time.
"That's our culture. But it's important to respect everything. Respect the players, the fans and the stadium. We're very honored to be here so we don't want to cause a mess and then leave. So I think that's why we do it," a female fan of the Japanese team present on the Dallas field explained the actions of Japanese fans after each match ended.
After the opening match against the Netherlands, the Japanese players will face Tunisia in Mexico on June 21, before returning to the US to meet the Swedish team on June 25.