The stereotype is that Japan is clean. That Japanese people are clean. Many people are, but certainly not all, including some of the country’s Pokémon Go players.
From a young age, Japanese people are taught to pick up after themselves. Kids in other countries are taught that as well, of course, but in Japan the point is driven home because it’s students who clean their classrooms and, yes, even their toilets.
Leaving trash anywhere is bad manners. Japan is no exception, but Japanese Twitter users have been calling out Pokémon Go players for their “terrible manners,” seeming to take particular offense to the mess and calling it “embarrassing.”
One Twitter user asked, “Is this what Japanese morals are like?” Others say that if people don’t clean up after themselves, locations will ban Pokémon Go because they don’t want to deal with the trash.
If only these Pokémon Go players were more like Japanese soccer fans!
People, however, aren’t just taking photos and complaining, but some are picking up the trash—either theirs or the trash of others.
A few children, it seems, even collected trash at Setagaya Park in Tokyo:
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