Japan's weather warning systems would do well to issue red alerts for the behavioral storms that hit the nation during world sporting events. The Rugby World Cup has seen the country's most sacred public space — the train — transformed into a circus of human pyramids, broken chords and — the deal breaker on Japanese Twitter — "their dirty feet being where people sit."
Social etiquette aside, such uncivilized behavior on the part of foreign fans has outraged locals, embarrassed their non-Japanese compatriots living here and fueled the very stereotypes the latter work tirelessly to dispel.
This is not to say that the badly behaved tourist comes solely in the form of a rugby fan, nor that the rugby cohort consists of nothing but hooligans. It's worth noting that both the Canadian and Namibian teams helped clean up after Typhoon Hagibis hit.
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