BBC - Travel - What Japan Can Teach Us About Cleanliness

10/7/2019 BBC - Travel - What Japan can teach us about cleanliness
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What Japan can teach us

about cleanliness
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One of the first things visitors to Japan notice is

how clean everywhere is – yet there are hardly
any litter bins and street sweepers. What's the
secret behind this contradiction?
www.bbc.com/travel/story/20191006-what-japan-can-teach-us-about-cleanliness 1/12
By Steve John Powell & Angeles Marin Cabello

7 October 2019
The students sit with their satchels on their desks, eager to get
home after another long day of seven 50-minute classes. They
listen patiently as their teacher makes a few announcements
about tomorrow’s timetable. Then, as every day, the teacher’s
final words: “OK everybody, today’s cleaning roster. Lines one
and two will clean the classroom. Lines three and four, the
corridor and stairs. And line five will clean the toilets.”
A few groans arise from line five, but the children stand up, grab
the mops, cloths and buckets from the broom cupboard at the
back of the classroom, and trot off to the toilets. Similar scenes
are happening at schools across the country.
Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the

country is. Then they notice the absence of litter bins. And street
sweepers. So they’re left with the question: how does Japan stay
so clean?
The easy answer is that residents themselves keep it that way.

“For 12 years of school life, from elementary school to high
school, cleaning time is part of students’ daily schedule,” said
Maiko Awane, assistant director of Hiroshima Prefectural
Government’s Tokyo office. “In our home life as well, parents
teach us that it’s bad for us not to keep our things and our space
clean.”
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Including this element of social consciousness in the school

curriculum helps the children develop an awareness of, and pride
in, their surroundings. Who wants to dirty or deface a school that
they have to clean up themselves?
“I sometimes didn't want to clean the school,” recalled freelance

translator Chika Hayashi, “but I accepted it because it was part of
our routine. I think having to clean the school is a very good thing
because we learn that it’s important for us to take responsibility
for cleaning the things and places that we use.”
On arriving at school, students leave their shoes in lockers and

change into trainers. At home, too, people leave their street
shoes at the entrance. Even workmen coming to your house will
remove their shoes and pad around in their socks. And as the
schoolchildren grow, their concept of what constitutes their space
extends beyond the classroom to include their neighbourhood,
their city and their country.
Some examples of extreme Japanese cleanliness have gone

viral, like the seven-minute Shinkansen train-cleaning ritual
that has become a tourist attraction in its own right.
Even Japan’s football supporters are cleanliness-conscious. In

World Cup football tournaments in Brazil (2014) and Russia
(2018), the national team’s fans amazed the world by staying
behind to pick up rubbish from the stadium. The players also left
their dressing room in immaculate condition. “What an example
for all teams!” tweeted FIFA’s general coordinator Priscilla
Janssens.
“We Japanese are very sensitive about our reputation in others’

eyes,” Awane said. “We don’t want others to think we are bad
people who don’t have enough education or upbringing to clean
things up.”
Similar scenes unfold at Japanese music festivals. At the Fuji

Rock festival, Japan’s biggest and oldest festival, fans keep their
rubbish with them until they find a bin. Smokers are instructed to
bring a portable ashtray and to ‘refrain from smoking where your
smoke can affect other people’, according to the festival website.
How different to 1969’s Woodstock festival, where Jimi Hendrix
played to a handful of people amid a vast morass of trash.
"
We don’t want others to think we are bad

people who don’t have enough education
or upbringing to clean things up
Examples of social awareness abound in daily life too. Around

08:00, for instance, office workers and shop staff clean the
streets around their place of work. Children volunteer for the
monthly community clean, picking up rubbish from the streets
near their school. Neighbourhoods, too, hold regular street-
cleaning events. Not that there’s much to clean, because people
take their litter home.
Even banknotes emerge from ATM’s as crisp and clean as a

freshly starched shirt. Nevertheless, money gets dirty, which is
why you never put it directly into someone’s hand. In shops,
hotels and even in taxis, you’ll see a little tray to place the money.
The other person then picks it up.
Invisible dirt – germs and bacteria – are another source of

concern. When people catch colds or flu, they wear surgical
masks to avoid infecting other people. This simple act of
consideration for others reduces the spread of viruses, thereby
saving a fortune in lost work days and medical expenses.
So how did the Japanese become so clean-conscious?
It certainly isn’t a new thing, as mariner Will Adams found when

he anchored here in 1600, thus becoming the first Englishman to
set foot in Japan. In his biography of Adams, Samurai
William, Giles Milton notes ‘the nobility were scrupulously clean’,
enjoying ‘pristine sewers and latrines’ and steam baths of
scented wood at a time when the streets of England ‘often
overflowed with excrement’. The Japanese ‘were appalled’ by the
Europeans’ disregard for personal cleanliness.
In part, this preoccupation is born of practical concerns. In a hot,

humid environment like Japan’s, food goes off quickly. Bacteria
flourish. Bug life abounds. So good hygiene means good health.
But it goes deeper than that. Cleanliness is a central part of

Buddhism, which arrived from China and Korea between the 6th
and 8th Centuries. In fact, in the Zen version of Buddhism, which
came to Japan from China in the 12th and 13th Centuries, daily
tasks like cleaning and cooking are considered spiritual
exercises, no different from meditating.
“In Zen, all daily life activities, including having meals and
cleaning the space, must be regarded as an opportunity to
practice Buddhism. Washing off the dirt both physically and
spiritually plays an important role in the daily practice,” said Eriko
Kuwagaki of Shinshoji Temple in Fukuyama, Hiroshima
Prefecture.
"
Washing off the dirt both physically and
spiritually plays an important role in the
daily practice
In Okakura Kakuro’s The Book of Tea, his classic book about

the tea ceremony and the Zen philosophy that infuses it, he
writes that, in the room where the tea ceremony is held “…
everything is absolutely clean. Not a particle of dust will be found
in the darkest corner, for if any exists the host is not a tea
master.”
Okakura wrote those words in 1906, but they still hold true today.
Prior to a tea ceremony at the Seifukan tea house in Hiroshima’s
Shukkeien Garden, you’ll see the tea master’s kimono-clad
assistant on her hands and knees dabbing the tatami floor with a
roll of sticky brown-paper tape, picking up every speck of dust.
So why aren’t all Buddhist nations as zealously clean as Japan?

Well, long before the arrival of Buddhism, Japan already had its
own indigenous religion: Shinto (meaning ‘The Way of The
Gods’), said to enshrine the very soul of the Japanese identity.
And cleanliness lies at the heart of Shinto. In the West, we are
taught that cleanliness is next to godliness. In Shinto, cleanliness
is godliness. So Buddhism’s emphasis on cleanliness merely
reinforced what the Japanese already practiced.
A key concept in Shinto is kegare (impurity or dirt), the opposite

of purity. Examples of kegare range from death and disease to
virtually anything unpleasant. Frequent purification rituals are
necessary to ward off kegare.
“If an individual is afflicted by kegare, it can bring harm to society

as a whole,” explained Noriaki Ikeda, assistant Shinto priest at
Hiroshima’s Kanda Shrine. “So it is vital to practice cleanliness.
This purifies you and helps avoid bringing calamities to society.
That is why Japan is a very clean country.”
This concern for others is understandable in the case of, say,

infectious diseases. But it also works on more prosaic levels, like
picking up your own rubbish. As Awane put it: “We Japanese
believe we shouldn’t bother others by being lazy and neglecting
the trash we’ve made.”
Examples of ritual purification abound in everyday life. Before

entering a Shinto shrine, worshippers rinse their hands and
mouth in a stone water basin at the entrance. Many Japanese
take their new car to the shrine to be purified by the priest, who
uses a feather duster-like wand called onusa that he waves
around the car. He then opens the doors, bonnet and boot to
purify the interior. The priest also purifies people by waving the
onusa from side to side over them. He will even use it to purify
land on which new building is about to commence.
If you live in Japan, you soon find yourself adopting the clean
lifestyle. You stop blowing your nose in public, make use of the
hand sanitizers provided for customers in shops and offices, and
learn to sort your household rubbish into 10 different types to
facilitate recycling.
And, like Will Adams and his castaway crew back in 1600, you
find your quality of life improves.
Then, when you return to your homeland, you’re shocked by

barbarians who sneeze and cough in your face. Or stomp into
your house in dirty shoes. Unthinkable in Japan.
But there’s still hope. After all, it also took a while for Pokémon,
sushi and camera phones to sweep the world.
Why We Are What We Are is a BBC Travel series examining the

characteristics of a country and investigating whether they are
true.
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10/7/2019 BBC - Travel - What Japan can teach us about cleanliness

Home News Sport Reel Worklife M

Asia Japan Cultural Traditions

What Japan can teach us

One of the first things visitors to Japan notice is

By Steve John Powell & Angeles Marin Cabello

Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the

The easy answer is that residents themselves keep it that way.

You may also be interested in:

Including this element of social consciousness in the school

“I sometimes didn't want to clean the school,” recalled freelance

On arriving at school, students leave their shoes in lockers and

Some examples of extreme Japanese cleanliness have gone

Even Japan’s football supporters are cleanliness-conscious. In

“We Japanese are very sensitive about our reputation in others’

Similar scenes unfold at Japanese music festivals. At the Fuji

We don’t want others to think we are bad

Examples of social awareness abound in daily life too. Around

Even banknotes emerge from ATM’s as crisp and clean as a

Invisible dirt – germs and bacteria – are another source of

So how did the Japanese become so clean-conscious?

It certainly isn’t a new thing, as mariner Will Adams found when

In part, this preoccupation is born of practical concerns. In a hot,

But it goes deeper than that. Cleanliness is a central part of

In Okakura Kakuro’s The Book of Tea, his classic book about

So why aren’t all Buddhist nations as zealously clean as Japan?

A key concept in Shinto is kegare (impurity or dirt), the opposite

“If an individual is afflicted by kegare, it can bring harm to society

This concern for others is understandable in the case of, say,

Examples of ritual purification abound in everyday life. Before

Then, when you return to your homeland, you’re shocked by

Why We Are What We Are is a BBC Travel series examining the

Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us

Follow BBC Travel

Explore the BBC

Terms of Use About the BBC

Privacy Policy Cookies

Accessibility Help Parental Guidance

Contact the BBC Get Personalised Newsletters

Advertise with us Ad choices

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