Why the phrase “Do it at home too” emerged — Japanese women are urging men to help with housework during the 2026 World Cup.
On 19 June 2026 GMT+7, after Japan’s national team drew 2-2 with the Netherlands in the 2026 World Cup, Japanese fans gained media attention for cleaning up trash in the stadium—a tradition since Japan’s first World Cup in 1998. Foreign media often praise this as reflecting Japan’s culture of orderliness.
Suddenly, women voiced calls regarding this act, as the praise sparked a meme criticizing Japanese men for not maintaining similar standards at home. The meme parodied subway etiquette signs by comparing diligent fans cleaning the stadium to scenes at home where women wash dishes while men in Japan’s national team jerseys lie on the sofa.
This issue goes deeper than a funny meme… Questions have long existed about the “spotlessly clean” image of Japanese fans. It seems to touch a sore spot for Japanese women—the fact that men often do not do housework, sometimes even deliberately avoiding it.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2021, Japanese women spend over 3 hours per day on unpaid work, more than five times the amount by men, who average only 47 minutes daily.
This gap is especially clear in families with young children. A 2021 Japanese government survey found that in dual-income households with children under six, women spend over 7 hours daily on housework, while men spend less than 2 hours.
Some social media users also questioned what they see as the contradiction of fans cleaning abroad while public spaces in Japan itself often contain litter.
Others noted that the “clean” image is not complete, citing domestic media reports that Tokyo’s Sumida River is often littered after the annual large fireworks festival. Some statistics also indicate that Japanese people themselves, more than foreign tourists, contribute to littering at certain tourist spots.
Nevertheless, amid heated debates about men’s and women’s division of housework, many believe the distinctive behavior of Japanese fans cleaning the stands after matches deserves encouragement rather than criticism.
“What’s embarrassing about it?” one user on X wrote. “It’s better than headlines saying ‘Japanese people litter abroad.’”
This style of cleaning seems to be influencing fans from other countries too. Recently, a viral social media clip showed Portuguese fans collecting trash in large plastic bags in the stands, with many crediting the Japanese as the originators of this trend.