World Cup highlights two sides of Japan

Japan's 2-3 loss to Belgium on Monday to a last-minute goal in the round of 16 at the ongoing Football World Cup in Russia has given the Chinese people plenty of food for thought and off-the-field issues for debate.

Part of the debate revolves around the stands in Rostov Arena in Rostov-on-Don that the Japanese spectators cleaned to perfection before leaving or the locker room sanitized by the Japanese players after the game.

The other prominent debate issue is the Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation of China which lasted until Japan's surrender in World War II in 1945, and the successive Japanese governments' reluctance to admit the country's wartime past and the atrocities it committed on the people of China and other Asian countries.