A Japanese man helped to pick up a staggering heap of 4,500 cigarette butts from the streets of Putrajaya, the federal administrative centre of the Malaysian capital.

The man, who calls himself Nana, posted the photo on his Twitter account on Tuesday (May 26) showcasing the huge pile of cigarette butts that he managed to collect within one and a half hours at the Ayer@8 business centre in Putrajaya earlier this year.

He tweeted in Japanese "many littering cigarette butts", accompanied by a crying emoji. He followed up with another tweet in Malay, explaining that he had picked up the trash during a clean-up event with environmentalist group Trash Hero Putrajaya a few months ago.

In his Twitter profile bio, Nana stated that he is a Japanese man living in Cyberjaya who's into volunteerism and is currently learning the Malaysian language.

That is clearly evident as his tweets in Japanese are often followed-up by tweets in Bahasa Malaysia.

Two days before Nana posted the photo of the cigarette butts in Putrajaya, he tweeted a picture of a mound of rubbish which consisted of plastic bottles, cigarette butts and more that was picked up with his fellow volunteers near Cyberjaya's Gem In Mall back in February.

When Malay Mail posted Nana's photo on its Facebook page, many commentators expressed their embarrassment that it took a foreign national to show Malaysians that they are litterbugs.

One Facebook user said: "Tidak apa (indifferent) attitude had already ruined our country in a way and now on its way to global destruction (sic).''

Another user chimed in: "Japanese are civic-minded people. Malaysians should change their mindset by following what the Japanese did. One good example was at the World Cup where they cleaned up their rubbish before leaving.''

Yet another user said (translated from Malay): "Sometimes ashtrays are provided but the cigarette butts are still strewn everywhere. Back in the old days when smoking was permitted at mamak stalls, you'd see the floor littered with cigarette butts despite ashtrays on every table. I'll never understand the mindset of these smokers. Their parents probably failed to educate them."

melinamoey@asiaone.com

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