If there is one thing Japan is obsessed about, toilets. This Asian country seems to have a great love for potties and the likes. They have put so much thought and invested so much in the smallest room in the house. Japan is famed for its advanced technology in drier-washing, tushie-warming toilets, and for their love for the products and the small room.
Toilets have become highly valued parts of Japanese culture to the extent of devoting a museum for the products. A beloved Japanese brand, Toto, built a 60-million-dollar museum at their headquarter base in Kita-Kyushu. It was devoted to its famed restroom products. Now you know how much these people value lavatories.
In fact, toilets are respected in Japan more than Taco Bell, or Burger King is valued in the USA. This guide highlights some really interesting facts about the Asian Country’s obsession with lavatories.
There Is an App for Toilets
There are apps in Japan to guide you into the best toilet for you or your situation. People in Japan don’t want to take chances going to restrooms that don’t have little seats in the stall for their babies. They don’t want to find themselves in lavatories that lack fold-down platforms for standing on while getting changed so that they don’t have to step on the bathroom floor.
With technological advancement, coupled with their love for toilets, Japanese have the most sophisticated toilet system. There are apps that can help you locate the nearest public restroom or one that has a special facility. For example, you can use the apps to know the large stalls that have facilities for people with ostomates, which is an issue relatively common in the rapidly aging Japan.
Some of the most common apps for this include @Toilet and Check a [email protected] is an app designed to provide you with the list of closest restroom once you click on the ‘emergency’ button. Check a Toilet on the other hand lists over 53000 public toilets in major cities. It will show you the nearest lavatories with information such as whether it has ostomate-friendly functions, or if it’s wheelchair accessible.
For women, because they only need clean restroom if they are to use any while away from home, there is an app known as Koisuru Map. The name translates to A Map in Love. It contains information about cafes, nail salons, and clean restrooms. It includes information such as whether there is diaper changing facilities or a powder space where women can fixing their makeup.
A Toilet God
Have you ever heard of a god of the toilets? In Japan, there is such a God, and sometimes I tend to think he is the reason why the toilets in Japan are so advanced and clean. Maybe he is the reason why Japan has a high regard for toilets.
According to the myth, a Japanese toilet god, Kawaya-no-kami, was born from the excrement of the goddess of the Earth and darkness. Long before the washlet was invented, excrements from the outhouses were used as fertilizers, and harvests were good.
It was believed that Kawaya-no-kami provided the people with good harvests and also protected them from falling into toilet pits. If a song titled “The Toilet God” can be a hit in Japan, then you can tell how much these people are obsessed with toilets.
In this country, toilets are almost always separate from the rest of the house and often feature flowers and decorations that are intended to keep the toilet god happy, and feel appreciated and loved.
Toilet Rituals
Some parts of Japan have customs and rituals associated with toilets. “Benjo-biraki,” which translates to “opening of the toilet” is a tradition in Aichi prefecture during which people sit on toilets to eat snacks and sip tea. It is a tradition that is used to honor the deity of the bathroom.
Final Verdict
According to the Japanese government, toilets are a feminist issue. The government launched the Japan Toilet Prize as part of a campaign to improve the quality of life in the country by improving the quality of lavatories.
I guess that is why Japan has set the pace for the invention of some of the best toilets the world has ever seen. They intend to keep washrooms always clean and safe with the motive of creating a suitable toilet environment for ladies.