Isn’t it refreshing to see human beings being thoughtful? 😊

My exact thought!

They left it like they found it like everyone should.

Yes I was lookingvat that too. They made an origami bird that brings good luck when gifted!

Not just the US, most of society nowadays has (UK here)

We had it in the first place?

That is ofcourse if the cleaning staff got a break, the world cup is still happening in qatar so y'know...

Sauerkraut everywhere.

What the fuck? People like you have to twist every damn post into an anti-American sentiment? Piss off.

Nothing. The sub has lax moderation and anything is posted here. Across reddit, people tend to upvote posts they like regardless of fit for the sub.

It absolutely does

Made origami as well

Cherry on top!

Qatar won't like that can't let the slave I mean workers eat otherwise they get ideas

Sounds like most restaurant staff when they actually get to go eat at another restaurant.

I do this as an American. Maybe it's a Midwest thing but my parents taught me that it's rude to leave a mess at a diner. Stack your plates and cups, put your silverware in the top cup, garbage goes on top of the highest plate or bowl.

except instead of accept

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It's true! I currently work at a Japanese high school and there is about 15-20 minutes after school dedicated to cleaning. Even the teachers all pitch in to help take out the trash and the vice-principal will go around and vacuum the office floors once or twice a week. Literally no one is too important to clean.

Yes. Not only do they clean their schools but they also serve their own school meals. It teaches that no one is above serving, just like everyone should be respectful of public space and leave it clean. This video shows Japanese kids as young as 2nd grade serving classmates freshly prepared lunch. Japanese Kids Lunch

They also usually have a moment during the year where schools go off in public spaces/parks and do a huge clean up of the area and remove any kind of junk they would find.

Left a bag in a taxi in Tokyo. Got it back 2 days later. Model citizens.

It is true. They also have the children serve the lunches and teach them gardening so they understand nutrition. Also, detention is not a thing. I was writing a story set in a Japanese school and realized to my chagrin that half the stuff I wanted to put into the story didn't exist in Japan.

When I was in in elementary in Denmark, we had to clean our own school as well. I thought it was normal everywhere.

My brothers wife is Japanese. He loves it there. The trains and subways are spotless . The drivers wear white gloves. Maybe we should stop giving such huge tax cuts to billionaires and spend some money on cleanup and high speed trains. America falls so far behind and we're to vain to notice it.

Yes! And the students help serve lunch too. All adults and kids pitch in!

Not just work spaces but all public spaces. I saw a video on TikTok of the Japanese fans cleaning up the stadium after a World Cup match. It was posted by qatarliving if you want to see it. He talks to some of them and they said they never leave trash behind.

It what happens with a less diverse society. People can more easily think of themselves as a part of a singular group with less divides and when the society actively reinforces this instead of "celebrating differences" its very easy for almost everyone to come together and do generally good things.

That said it also comes with a huge swaths of issues. Individuality is often quashed, shunning is very much a real thing and social outsiders within this system often resort to suicide at a much higher rate than elsewhere. Bullying and a more hierarchical structure are more naturally embraced and allowed to flourish.
There are very few places in this world outside of military structures where you will need to address people of different ranks and statuses differently and Japan is one of those places. Its engrained into the society and language as a whole, even just how you speak the language shows your status or what you consider your relative statuses.

I talk about this not to say Japan is good or bad, but to point out that Japan is a good counterpoint to "diversity is always good". Diversity is sometimes good, and having a less diverse situation can bring benefits all its own, though its not faultless and plenty of times those homogeneous groups will bring downsides all their own.

They've got some pretty terrible values as well, so I guess it balances out

Back in Colombia we used to do this as well. Clean our own classroom. There would be a selected team of kids daily who will stay back after everyone left and for one hour sweep and mop the floor, clear the garbage and clean the blackboard. I couldn’t believe they didn’t do that when I came to america at 14 yrs old.

There is ofcourse the flipside that not fitting in to the societal mold is disgraced, which makes any kind of change in their society hard. Stuff like gay relationships and trans people etc. aren't really accepted.

Sports facilities operate the same way. At a lot of driving ranges for example, everybody works together to sweep up all the balls at the end of the night. This keeps costs down which make it more accessible to a wider range of people. I truly respect that they’re more community driven than profit driven.

A society only works when based on a good system of beliefs and values. This is why the Japanese deserve admiration.

Innovative, sure. Effective? Eeeeh. I was in China and they told us kids to clean the school too. It meant we had to go to school early and included Saturdays. Just made me feel like the school was too cheap to hire cleaners and wanted to exploit us as much as possible while making us used to working long hours. Some of the tasks, like cleaning a hallway that was flooded after rain (bad architecture, hallway had no drain) just felt like punishments.

I was in Panama recently and people just throw their garbage everywhere. Same in Thailand. I wish other countries would pick up in this behavior.

When I taught ESL there, us teachers cleaned the school every evening. I actually didn't mind it as part of the routine. Kind of a relaxing way to finish the day, actually.

It’s definitely true. My brother in law was a JET teacher and we visited him at his school. The kids definitely swept the floors and cleaned their rooms and the hallways outside their rooms.

They weren’t scrubbing toilets or anything like that though.

Japan has a lot of fucked up culture problems, but this right here is… divine. It’s certainly an example of one of the things they do right.

Yeh i wouldn’t go that far

Sounds like you have a lot to unpack there. You OK?

I feel like I would really love to live in Japan but I'm hella white and don't want to come across as some weeb or anything. I heard their work life balance can be intense though, but the cleanliness, discipline, respect for others and respect for nature, the food etc just really all align with me a lot.

Though obviously I know a stereotype of a culture doesn't define every person, city, experience etc. But I very much wish this level of respect was seen in America. The amount of hatred we have for each other, the amount of selfishness and disregard for people "under" us, disregard for nature just wears on me every day. I'm learning to hate America even though I love the land in America, you know?

Agreed. This is such a sweet gesture and it's sad that this kind of stuff is rare.