Raw Japan

Japan expats clean up Paris

“Japan syndrome” hits about 10 Japanese tourists to Paris a year. The victims are so disappointed at the dirty streets and rude waiters that they succumb to a nervous breakdown at the idea of having wasted a week of leave and savings on a trip to the City of Lights.

There is said to be a psychologist, Japanese of course, who treats these despondent compatriots at the embassy. So when I read about a group of Japanese volunteers who gather once a month to clean the famously cobbled streets of Paris I saw a story.

Place de la Concorde is a busy intersection of ferocious drivers in underpowered cars hurtling past some of the most beautiful architecture in the city. At the epicentre I find a group of 20 Japanese dressed in green tops holding tongs and brooms, with cameras and gloves, waiting for their leader Osamu-san to start the slow march up the Champs Elysees.

I interview Osamu-san. It is stunted and in three languages. His reasons for the group’s existence seem not to require explanation: Paris could be cleaner and so the group is cleaning it up. Simple. “Green Bird – Keep Clean, Keep Green” read their vests. “It’s not so clean in Osaka, either” he says smiling, not wanting to appear superior.