Japanese Office Worker Expresses Gratitude to Company While Watching World Cup

Displaying 'Thank you for the 2-week vacation' message from the stands
Company responds via SNS with 'Have a great vacation'

NTT East Japan retweeted a FIFA post, sending a message to their employee watching the Qatar World Cup locally to "Enjoy it." Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] On the 23rd (local time), a Japanese office worker who watched the Germany-Japan match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup at the stadium attracted attention by holding up a paper with a unique phrase written on it.

Usually, spectators hold placards or banners encouraging and supporting their own country's players or teams, but uniquely, this soccer fan watched the game holding a sketchbook paper that read, "Dear My Boss, Thank you for My 2 Week off!"

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), which captured this scene, posted a short and witty message along with a photo of this male fan on its official Twitter account on the 23rd: "This one goes out to all the bosses out there." FIFA was sending greetings on behalf of bosses who gave leave so that many soccer fans from around the world could watch the World Cup matches on site. By the afternoon of the 25th, FIFA’s post had been retweeted 22,000 times and received more than 132,000 likes.

The heartwarming story did not end there. Two days after the post was uploaded, on the 25th, the official Twitter account of Japan’s telecommunications company NTT East retweeted FIFA’s message and then replied to the soccer fan employee. NTT East responded, "Enjoy your vacation and the World Cup. From your boss," adding a smiling emoji and a red heart playfully.

Japanese media Sponichi reported, "The PR department of NTT East confirmed that this soccer fan is indeed their employee," and "The reply was directly made by the boss who saw FIFA’s post." Sponichi added, "Many netizens cheered for the employee and left comments praising NTT East for allowing the long vacation."

Japanese netizens reacted with comments such as "NTT East is a good company," "This conversation is warm," "As expected," and "Excellent." NTT East’s tweet post surpassed 4,800 retweets and 10,000 likes within just four hours of being posted.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.