Are Japanese the Classiest Asians? Or Is It All a Front?

Japanese soccer is going viral again, but not just for the fans that are cleaning up the stands, but actually the team itself left the locker room spotless, leaving a lot of people to wonder, why are the Japanese so clean? Yeah, this is going viral on social media right now. The CNN headline reads, Japan and his fans praise on social media for tidying dressing room and stands at the Women's World Cup. Long story short, Andrew, they just beat Zambia, and they cleaned the locker room and the stands almost like better than a janitor would. Listen, a lot of people wonder why the Japanese are so clean. I'm going to explain it in this video here, but I got to say, there's a whole bunch of crazy comments talking about, oh, well, it's because they're the classiest Asians, they're the most advanced country on earth, and then, oh, also they're trying to make up for the war crimes of World War II. Bunch of crazy stuff, but anyways, guys, please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the HopHopBoys after this, and please definitely show love if you guys enjoy the commentary and the news that we cover. Yeah, I mean, real quick, Andrew, what are the real reasons that, obviously, I would say none of these news articles are delving into, what are the actual historical cultural explanations behind why Japanese are generally so clean or probably considered the cleanest people on earth? Yeah, I mean, honestly, they live in the anime. That's the reason why. No, I'm just kidding. The real reason is that, I think, one, it is taught in school from a really, really young age. At school, when kids are growing up, they have to clean up and leave their classroom spotless. No, they have to do a deep clean even like in elementary school. Yeah, so it's part of the culture from when they're young. It's really related to Shintoism and Zen Buddhism that both preach to be clean is to be pure. And also, you have to be super clean before you enter the temple. We all know this. Government policy is to not have a lot of trash cans around the cities. Also, you can get fined for littering. So you have to take your trash. You can't just throw it in a garbage can. You actually have to take it with you and figure out what to do with it. Also, there's a lot of public shaming. It's become a national pride and an image thing. They don't view it as a chore. And honestly, once the Japanese kind of dedicate themselves to something, David, they're just really good at it. They really are, man. It's a very, very disciplined, very, very focused culture, to be honest. Let's get into the comments section, of course, and get into our own takeaways. Somebody said, hey, in case you guys didn't know, you don't have to be Japanese to act accordingly to common sense. This is decency everybody should have. But nowadays, people mentality is it's not my job. There's cleaners for a reason. It's not that difficult to clean up after the mess you made. I mean, I don't really fully agree with these comments because it would be weird, I guess, for everybody in the world to be like 11 out of 10 like the Japanese are. But for sure, I would say the Western world has seemingly gotten more ruder and maybe more disorderly. Yeah, I think there's this whole thing about that's not my job. But again, I don't think the Japanese look at cleaning as a job or as a chore. I think they just look at it as a part of life. And a way to just stay organized. And that's just like, oh, that is, you know, just something that us Japanese people do. Like you have to just do it like it's no question. I don't think they give it a lot of thought. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't even think it's it's worked for them. Somebody said, I remember watching the aftermath of the big earthquake in the Fukushima plant meltdown. People were helping each other and cleaning up and there was no looting either. Meanwhile, I remember during Hurricane Katrina, there was already people looting while the storm was taking place. Basically, Japan's culture is very, very different from America, right? I mean, they do not really have what looting, killing, robbing, drug use. Listen, I'm telling you guys just the fact they do not have drugs at all in Japan. Well, they they don't have drugs largely because they don't allow it. The government will not allow it. Obviously, they're an island, so it's not easy to smuggle things into there. But literally, the laws are just super strict. So I mean, they will execute you. Yeah, to be honest. Somebody said, I'm not surprised at all. It's the same way it is in Japan. The trains are flawlessly clean. I left my umbrella at the station and 10 hours later, it was exactly where I left it. Of course, you can't even leave your bicycle unlocked in America for more than five minutes. David, I think a lot of people associate the cleanliness and kind of the orderliness of Japan with some like weird desire or like Japanese people being weird. Do you think because like people are not free to like steal things or wreck things or dirty things up that that like makes them more weird or something? Like, is it related to that? I just feel like they think the Japanese are just super different. Right. And the way they react in any almost given circumstance would be wildly different. But I guess my question is, can you be a super clean person in America and not feel super weird or different to people? Um, that's a good question. To be honest, I'm not sure. But I do know that in America, there's a rowdiness. Yeah. You know, despite how like advanced America's economy is, there's also this like primal rowdiness that it's very difficult for, I think, sometimes even East Asians to understand. OK, yeah, it's possible. Somebody said, what a great culture. Arigato to you for setting such a great example. Players from other countries, including the USA, should take note. But here's my thing. I think it's not that Japanese people like don't party and cause a mess, but they just know that they have to clean afterwards. That's just something they do. It's almost just it's just a circle of life to them is what I'm saying. Right, right. You know, whether it's Shintoism or Buddhism that they believe in or whatever it is, it's just like they just have it built in that you clean like no questions asked. What do you think about this assertion that like Americans need to learn from them? Because I'm like, but it's their culture. And it's probably been that way for like thousands of years. How can they how can America learn from them? Because behaviors are often driven by like baseline cultures that are made up from of like a thousand things. It's also just driven by the laws, guys. I mean, we're talking about Singapore, Singapore, super clean. You can't. Why are the Singaporean streets clean? Is it because people don't want to litter? No, people want to litter, but they'll just get fined or caned if they litter. Right. So I'm saying like if you it's the laws, really. So you have to have stricter laws if you want people to kind of train themselves to be like this, because you can train kids at a young age in America to clean up after class, which I kind of did in school a little bit. But at the end of the day, if you don't enforce it when they're adults, which it would have to be a law at that point, then how why would people do it? But some people are arguing that in Singapore, people keep it clean because of the strict punishments they get. Whereas in Japan, they keep it clean because they just have pride. And that's how a Japanese person should be. I mean, yes and no. I do think that at a baseline, Japanese are cleaner, but they also still have the laws in place like you will get fined for littering. Somebody said they actually just really practice mindfulness. Mindfulness extends well into other aspects of life, not just cleaning up after oneself. Bro, I was I will say this. I was outside of a 7-Eleven filming a food video in Tokyo in Harajuku with some friends. And we have this video with A.B. And I was like eating this chicken sandwich. I'm not gonna lie. It was like kind of dripping and falling onto the ground outside. And I got hella self-conscious because I was like, oh, man, you're really not supposed to litter and cause a mess in Japan. So I like felt bad, but the sauce was like dripping. I was trying to do a video and be like, you know, kind of over the top and everything. So then I cleaned it up afterwards because everybody around like was kind of looking at me. And I was like, damn, I'm being like a stupid YouTube influencer, right? You were being socially deviant. Do you think it has to do with just the fact that if all everybody else in Japan is being super clean, that's just going to perpetuate the behavior? Whereas like, for example, Andrew, everybody in New York seems to be very messy. That's only going to perpetuate more messiness because you're like, well, if they're not cleaning up, why am I going to clean up? Yeah, I think it's cool to be messy in America. And it's cool to be rowdy, which I understand why, because I grew up in America. But in Japan, it's completely different. So guess what? Different countries have different cultures. Somebody said Japan's respectfulness is a lie. It is literally propaganda to deflect from their crimes in World War II. Somebody said most of these people were born in the past 40 years, buddy. Those war crimes happened 70, 80 years ago. And somebody said, of course, some other people were very doubtful. You know, people who obviously hold some historical beef against Japan. They were like, oh, other East Asian teams do it too. But the Japanese are the only people who got a professional camera crew filming them. It's all a facade to deflect from the war crimes. I was surprised, Andrew. There was a lot of arguing. People were saying, oh, the Japanese government is dumping filtered radioactive water into the ocean from Fukushima. Don't be tricked by this, guys. This is all a deflection. Why do you think there is so much beef? Because obviously a lot of countries, they really, really didn't like what Imperial Japan did. Did horrific things. And then now almost they're almost getting praised as a perfect society. I can see why that would make those people mad. Yes, I do get that if you're a historian and you're constantly and you just learn about all the atrocities that the Japanese military committed, not Japanese citizens, the Japanese military, that you would be like, yeah, well, so what if they're clean? They're like evil. And it was, yeah, you know, and I'm like, I guess like, yeah, I guess if you want to look at this as propaganda, it is good PR. I do think they play it up, but they also do the work. So I guess what can you say? I just know that for me, when I look at what happened in World War II, it was horrific, but I blame it more on the military and the government versus the people. And maybe this kind of goes back to the whole argument about China and how people view China. But ultimately, like Japan, I don't think those citizens in Japan at that time were thinking about all the people that the military was killing. Right, right. And also, I think that probably while the military was out in Japan, they were probably still keeping Japan internally, domestically super clean. Yeah, I don't think Japan just started being clean. I think they were clean for decades, probably possibly thousands of years. Man, I got to look into it more. Centuries. Somebody said this is why they go to Paris and develop Paris syndrome, because Paris syndrome is where specifically people from Japan have their expectations of Paris ruined when they get there. And some of them even have to be hospitalized. Because I guess in a lot of animes and a lot of Japanese animation, they depict Paris like maybe the way Japanese people would run Paris. But when you get there, there's just like trash everywhere. Somebody said, wow, and their food tastes so good, too. Even here in America. And somebody said, yeah, bro, you are such a weeb. You probably love anime and manga, too. Yeah, I don't know what Japan is doing on the low that might be considered like bad or evil. But I'm just saying, as far as media wise, they provide everything that people want. Good food, clean spaces, fun time, friendly service on the outside. It is perfect. I'm not saying it is a perfect. No, when you go to Tokyo as a tourist and you just see their setup there, it's mind blowing. Yeah, you can call it a facade if you want. I really don't know what that's supposed to mean fully. But man, it's enjoyable. I actually want to say that Japan even exceeded my expectations when I went there, to be honest. Somebody said there you guys go again. This person is Japanese, by the way. There you guys go again. One of the few good things about Japan. Our gender gap is one of the lowest. Non-stop economic crises. Same sex marriage isn't allowed. Racial profiling every day. Abuse of refugees. Oh, and on top of that, the biggest idol agency has been sexual abusing the boys for more than 70 years. But media kept it hidden away until recently. I mean, I don't know. Are Japanese clean because they want to cover up for the deep, dark Yakuza? The deep, you know what I mean? You're saying it's got some skeletons in the closet. Yeah, well, then maybe some other countries should learn from Japan in that sense. I don't know. Somebody said Japanese are simply the highest class of people. Try visiting Japan. You'll know why. Somebody said no unnecessary drama, extremely respectful society. Someone said I totally agree. Unfortunately, us Americans are slobs in comparison. Somebody said Japan's work, civility, moral, and humanitarian ethic gives me some hope for the species. Sadly, there are too few Japanese people who live by those high standards to save humanity. Interesting. Somebody said that's how Japanese live. They are the cleanest, most cleanly people on earth. No doubt about it. And they are taking pride in what they do instead of getting angry and jealous unlike so many other races. Could the cleanliness come from a sense of superiority, I guess? I guess in the negative light. I don't want to paint Japan as negative. But I guess if we had to think of their negative reasons on why they would clean like, Oh, we are just better than everybody. Koreans, we are better than. Chinese, we are definitely better than. Of course, Andrew, this turned into a almost a right wing discussion about homogenous populations. This is what happens when everybody has the same culture. This is what happens when you don't have large groups of people who want to be separate from everybody else and call it progress. Huh? This is great. I mean, obviously, listen, I get why somebody would say this, but obviously it's not true because there's a ton of homogenous countries that are nothing like Japan. Yeah. And then also, like, it really comes down to the laws, man. And what I don't like the hypocrisy behind people who say this are like, it's like you want America to, the exact reasons why America is different than a lot of countries is contributes to all these other things. You mean the freedom? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like so stupid when people are like, man, well, why don't we be like Japan? I was like, well, the whole reason why America is like America is not like Japan. Right. So you can't just say like, oh, let's be like Japan. You want to be just like a drastically, drastically, unbelievably different society that has been different for thousands of years. America is like, what, 300 years old? Somebody said you'll never see stories of Chinese fans cleaning up their seating sections. I guarantee you that team China would leave their locker room in a mess. Of course, you know, China had to get wrapped up in it. You know, it's unfortunate. I do think there potentially is some truth to the stereotype that of the East Asians, probably maybe Chinese are the messiest. Mainland Chinese. It's possible if you made me rank it. I think to wrap this up, man, I think it really comes down to the pride that you have in doing things right. Like you just have the pride in everything that you do. And I think Japanese people generally have that. I'm not saying that they don't lack things in other ways or that there's not their own issues, maybe psychologically or whatever it is, you know what I mean? Like you could go down the list. Right. But I think that when it comes to this, man, you just have to dedicate yourself to something and you just have to like, it just has to be part of your culture, man. It may be psychopathic about cleaning. Yeah. I'm just kidding, guys. I mean, I do think that even though I think mainland China is for sure messier than Japan and Korea, I still think it's cleaner than Paris and New York, though, to be honest. Last but not least, Andrew, somebody said here's to betting against the traitors, aka the U.S. Women's soccer team. Look at Japan, how much pride they have. And they are so patriotic. And look at our team kneeling during the national anthem. It's disgusting. I mean, this is a little bit of a side conversation and it still has to do with the Women's World Cup. Yeah. You know, what's funny is like, I just feel like the capitalism and freedom runs opposite to patriotism, like in a way to be patriotic. We should send everybody to like mandatory military service. You got to have strict laws. Everybody buys into the same system. You can't. You got to have less freedom. You know what I mean? Like that. That's like I think it runs like a little bit opposite. So I think people are like, oh, I love America for the capitalists. I make money. I can drive my truck. I can make the wheels as big as possible. I can put a gun on top of the truck and drive around. And that's what I love about America. And then you're like, wait, so like how are people supposed to be on the same page with like everybody thinks so different? Yeah, I don't know, guys. Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Of course, keep it simple. And let's just get into our takeaways. Why do you think the whole world is astounded or this just goes viral every time there's international soccer matches? And of course, Team Japan, whether men or women, they clean up the locker room. And of course, the fans, even if they're dressed in full garb and costumes, they clean up the stands. I just think everything from Japan goes viral, man. Like whatever issues or good things that they do are just going to go viral. Oh, they clean everything up. Oh, Japanese are so great. Oh, look, they have these types of guys who are herbivores. They don't even want to have a relationship. Or this guy married like a Vocaloid. Yeah, like Android. Look at this weird sex suit that the Japanese invented. Oh, but it's clean. The sex suit also cleans you or something like that. I guess it's just like there's two sides to everything. And I think that everything from Japan goes viral because everybody like it's such a wacky culture. They just like Japan. They like Japan and they like being there. But yeah, obviously, every country has its issues going on. But yeah, I mean, all the way back to the 1990s and remember when all the Hollywood stars like Schwarzenegger were going to Japan to do like wacky coffee commercials that people could not believe how quirky they were. The truth is, Andrew, Japanese are generally an incredibly intense and disciplined focused people, right? And that's just their culture. It's been that way for a really long time. And I don't know if this sounds PC or not, Andrew, but it's possible that their just ability to execute can be used for just anything, right? Good or bad things. It's almost like if you're in control of a Gundam suit, first of all, incredibly impressive you control a Gundam, but I can't tell you what is the morality of what you do in that Gundam. I can just be like, man, you guys got a Gundam suit. That's crazy. That's so impressive. But you know what I mean? Like, I guess you could do bad things with it, too, is what I'm saying. No, you're just saying that when you dedicate yourself to something, if you dedicate yourself to something negative, then you're going to be really good at that thing as well. Or you can dedicate yourself to something good. Right. I mean, I just think that culture is made up of so many things, man. And like when you try to pick apart something and you're like, man, I wish everybody was respectful and mindful like the Japanese. And I wish everybody could cook bread like the French. Or I wish everybody could cook noodles like the Italians. Or I wish everybody could do this, like this group of people that's known to be the best at thing. You know, is that is that does that make any sense or do cultures really come in packages with full of pros and cons? It's just like cars, right? Like, oh, you want great fuel economy in this car? Well, it's not going to be that powerful. It's going to be, you know, they had to make the frame a lot lighter. So theoretically, in a car crash, you know, that might not be good when you have the light frame of the light frame allows for the good mileage. Like, I'm not saying you can't mitigate downsides of culture. But at the end of the day, every country has a lot of pros and cons. And it's like you're just born into one and you either can accept it or you can move. Are you saying there's not one single perfect culture? No. All right, everybody, let me know in the comments down below what you guys think about Japan always cleaning. Where does it come from? What are your experiences? And also, maybe maybe it comes as a trade off for something else. I don't know. Who knows? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Until next time, we're the Hotbar Boys. We out. Peace. Arigato.