users: especially japanese citizens, tend to take care of public spaces. it’s not quite the same in hong kong or taiwan, but to be fair, they also have fewer foreign workers compared to us. not trying to bad-mouth anyone but many are here to earn a living, so it's understandable if they don’t feel as connected to our infrastructure.

dedicated dept: in japan, some departments are internal, but over here it’s mostly outsourced. their inspections are very detailed .some even include air quality checks. they’re also more frequent, and reports or stats on station cleanliness are often made public. here, most of cleaning staff are also foreign workers… so we’re kind of back to the first issue.

audit: some transport companies even use “mystery inspectors” who go through the system like regular passengers to quietly assess things like cleanliness, staff behavior, and whether basic facilities are in order (like toilet paper stocked, floors not slippery, etc.).

feedback: they also tend to take this issue very seriously. not just after something goes viral on social media.