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Japan selects representative for 'garbage' World Cup

TOKYO - With the first-ever 'SpoGOMI' World Cup scheduled for Tokyo next month, a match was held in Shinjuku on Monday to determine the Japanese representative for the sport of picking up garbage.

'SpoGOMI,' involves teams competing to collect garbage within a designated area and time frame, with points awarded based on the type and quantity of garbage collected. The sport, which was born in Japan in 2008, is holding its first-ever world championship this year.

Participants who have advanced through the preliminary rounds in various prefectures were seen braving the pouring rain while collecting as much garbage as they could carry.

A representative from Wakayama exclaimed, "We collected so much that our bags started to tear, so we had to switch them out. We're trying not to drop any garbage."

The collected garbage is sorted by type and then weighed to calculate points. Cigarette butts, which are difficult to collect and lightweight individually, are assigned a high point value.

The winning team was from Niigata Prefecture, and they will represent Japan in the upcoming world championship scheduled to be held in Tokyo next month.

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Japan's World Cup campaign begins on June 14 when the Samurai Blue face the Netherlands at Dallas Stadium in Texas, a clash that will showcase some of the game's most talented players and pit two ambitious teams against one another in a crucial Group F opener. While Japan arrives without injured winger Kaoru Mitoma, one of its most recognizable stars, the squad still boasts a wealth of talent drawn from Europe's top leagues.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced that an El Niño phenomenon is believed to have developed this spring, warning that Japan is likely to experience above-average temperatures nationwide this summer despite the climate pattern's traditional association with cooler summers.

Narita International Airport Corporation is expected to announce next month that it will apply to the national government for project certification as part of the process to enable compulsory land acquisition for the construction of a new runway at Narita Airport, according to sources familiar with the matter.

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