Three employees from the JFE Shoji Osaka Office participated in the SpoGomi World Cup 2023 Hyogo stage held on August 6 at Nishinomiyahama General Park in Hyogo Prefecture.
　“SpoGomi” is a Japanese portmanteau of the words sports and gomi (trash). As the name suggests, this sport created in Japan makes a game out of picking up trash. Teams compete for points awarded according to the amount and type of trash picked up in a given area within the time limit.
　The first-place team in each regional stage is invited to the Japan stage held in Tokyo in October. The winner of the Japan stage earns the right to represent Japan in the World Cup scheduled for November in Tokyo, where they will compete against teams from twenty other countries.
　On the day of the event, Osaka Office general manager Shinji Kitajima, general manager Shinichi Hagiwara and staff manager Yoshikazu Yasuda competed as team J-Show. All teams started picking up trash at 10 a.m., braving temperatures over 35°C.
　The J-Show team managed to collect 1.95 kg of trash during the one-hour time limit. Ultimately, however, the team that collected 9.8 kg was the victor.
　Team J-Show placed 14th out of the 29 teams—and a total of 85 competitors—and unfortunately did not qualify for the Japan stage. However, the team members say that participating in the event served as a good opportunity to realize just how much trash is out there, and to raise awareness of the need to avoid putting trash into the ocean, which was a SpoGomi event objective.