Japan selects representative for 'garbage' World Cup

Oct 10, 2023 | News On Japan

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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