ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Japanese spectators at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil astounded onlookers by cleaning up their stand moments after losing their opening match.

Armed with bin liners that they had apparently brought along with them, fans patrolled their side of the stadium and gathered up discarded litter.

Football fans from other countries could only look on with awe before expressing their feelings on social networking sites.

"Massive respect for the Japanese football fans who cleaned the stadium after the match. What a wonderful gesture," said one Twitter user. "What a good gesture from Japan," wrote another.

The team from Japan - nicknamed the Blue Samurais - had just lost their opening match by one goal to Ivory Coast's two at the Arena Pernambuco in Recife. The team itself immediately displayed good form after the defeat by bowing to their fans and thanking them for their support. Then the clean-up began.

According to reports, cleaning up after a game is quite common at sporting events in Japan and Japanese fans have demonstrated this practice at other World Cups in the past.

As Japanese national Timothy Takemoto explained on a forum: "The Japanese are big on garbage. Primary school kids clean their own classrooms and even though public waste bins are very rare on streets and in parks, folks rarely litter but take their refuse home."

Whether it is common practice or not, the incident led to plaudits from news stations around the world and the respectful, courteous behaviour of the Japanese fans was praised all over the globe.