JAPANESE students, educators and business community leaders took part in a clean-up of the roadsides in Lautoka and Nadi at the weekend.
Co-organiser and co-ordinator of the clean-up campaign, Hiroshi Matsumoto said the activities were organised by the Japanese community in Fiji, Freebird Language Institute and Daikoku Restaurant.
"This is our way of giving back to a country that was swift to respond to our hour of need when the terrible earthquake and tsunami devastated our country in March 2011," he said. "We got together and decided that the best way we could show our appreciation and respect to Fiji was to contribute by taking part in an environmental project like this.
"This is the first but won't be the last of such projects that our group will undertake," he said.
About 150 Japanese nationals and a handful of locals took part in the clean-up of sidewalks and streets.
Students from the Freebird Institute in Lautoka cleaned up Shirley Park and streets in the city before joining counterparts in Nadi for lunch on Saturday.