Japanese men are indifferent to housework despite cleaning the stands at the World Cup!

Japanese football fans are always praised around the world for cleaning up the trash in the stands after World Cup matches. However, this time this traditional custom has come under severe criticism in their own country.
The ‘Blue Samurai’ (Japan team) took to the field against the Netherlands in the first match of the group stage of the current World Cup. The controversy started after the pictures of Japanese men cleaning up the trash in the stands went viral on social media after that match.
A section of netizens have highlighted a huge contradiction in this habit. Men who clean up their own mess in public are putting all the burden of housework on women. Recently, a post went viral on Japanese social media. There were two pictures side by side.
On one side, a man is seen cleaning up the trash in the stadium; In another image, the same man is seen lying on a sofa next to a laundry basket, using his mobile phone, while a woman washes dishes in the kitchen.
The post, which has received 60,000 likes on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and has been viewed nearly 1.9 million times in another version, says that Japanese men should “help with the housework more.” It claims that Japanese men spend the least amount of time on housework in the world.
Quoting a quote by American author P. J. O’Rourke, one X user commented, “Everyone wants to save the planet, but no one wants to help their mother wash the dishes.”
Another wrote, “Among those who are cleaning up the trash, there must be someone who has a small child at home and has come to watch the World Cup alone, leaving his wife to look after the child.” The custom of cleaning up one’s own trash in public is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture. But when it comes to housework, Japanese men rank at the bottom of the list among developed countries.
According to 2021 data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Japanese women spend an average of more than 3 hours a day on unpaid (household) work, more than 5 times more than men. On the other hand, men spend only 47 minutes a day on household chores.
According to OECD data provided by the Cabinet Office of Japan, women spend 5.5 times more time than men on tasks such as shopping, housework and caring for the family.
This disparity is even more pronounced in the case of young families. A 2021 Japanese government survey found that among working couples with children under the age of 6, women spend more than 7 hours a day on household chores, while men spend less than 2 hours.
This gender gap in Japan is much higher than in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, where women spend 1.8 times, 1.7 times and 1.6 times more time on unpaid household chores than men, respectively. Some have criticized it as a form of hypocrisy. According to them, while garbage is cleaned up abroad, Japan sees a lot of garbage in public after their own big events.
However, there are also opposing views. Many believe that this habit of Japanese fans should be encouraged rather than criticized. One X user wrote, “What’s the shame in this? It’s much better than the news that ‘Japanese are making the environment dirty abroad’.”
This positive habit of the Japanese is now inspiring fans in other countries as well. A recent video showed Portuguese fans collecting garbage in large plastic bags from the stands after matches, for which netizens are giving credit to the Japanese.
FIFA has highly praised the “perfect behavior” of Japanese fans for keeping the stands clean on their official X handle. These pictures of the men in blue jerseys cleaning up the trash have been widely praised online.
However, the controversy over the viral post continues. One user joked, “Wives who suffer because their husbands don’t do the housework should have their husbands wear samurai jerseys at home.” Of course, another wrote, “That’s a gross generalization. Not all Japanese men are the same.”
Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu said at a news conference Friday ahead of their second group match against Tunisia in Mexico that he was proud of the reputation Japanese fans have earned around the world for keeping their places clean at the World Cup; but that shouldn’t take away from the work of the cleaners.
“I think it’s part of Japanese culture that we can be proud of in the world,” Moriyasu said. The cleanliness habit was also seen among the Japanese team, who left the Dallas Cowboys stadium dressing room spotlessly clean after the game. But the coach acknowledged that it could have a downside.
“I’ve met Brazilian players, coaches and people from different countries, and they all have different views. They say that if the fans pick up all the dirt and clean it up, wouldn’t the cleaners’ jobs be at risk? So I think it can be looked at in a different way,” he said.