[phendrenad2]

Japanese pop-psychology is funny. Japanese martial arts are all about "learning respect" and children cleaning up their messes is about learning to "respect your surroundings". But what's really happening here is people are gaining agency. In the US, most people seem to believe that they have no control over their environment, so it's fine to litter, for instance, because it's "someone else's job" to clean it up. They don't believe that they have the power to make a difference, even if they tried. It's not until you see that picking up your own trash... makes the trash go away... that people really get it.

EDIT: Also worth mentioning, an effect you see in the US and European countries is a sense that cleaning up your own messes is low-class, and if you clean up after yourself you're diminishing your own worth. Normalizing tidying up helps break this assumption.

[sottol]

I don't think it's a power to make a difference thing. I think it's just individualism and self-centeredness, as in "it's not my backyard and I won't see it so whatever, someone else's problem".

[cameldrv]

I wouldn't say I agree with this for the U.S., and Europe is a big place, but at least in Germany this is not true. In fact for example, in many apartment buildings, instead of having cleaners for the common areas, the residents are put on a rotation, and when it's your turn you have to sweep the stairs etc.

[crazygringo]

> an effect you see in the US and European countries is a sense that cleaning up your own messes is low-class

At least in the US, I don't think that's the case at all.

A lot of people from other countries are genuinely shocked, for example, that "rich Americans" pick up their own dog's poop. Or even bus their own tray in a cafeteria.

There are a lot of countries where it's normal to have a maid, for example, where tidying after yourself is low-class in a sense. But the US is most definitely not one of those countries.

[black6]

It's the lowest of the classes in the US that is the worst about being trashy and not cleaning up after themselves.

[obscurette]

I think it speaks more about the people from other countries themselves than about the U.S. It's about naive view that if you are really rich, you don't have to do anything yourself. And in the US everyone is really rich from their point of view.