The Japanese toilet situation

Nowadays, Japan seems to be famous for high-tech toilets. Japan brought in “world’s best toilet” at the Shanghai Expo. The toilet has various high-performance functions, whether those functions are necessary or not. I also heard that many people visit there and wait in a queue to try the toilet.

And now, such Japan has two unique toilet situations. At the outset, at elementary schools, their toilet situations are troublesome.

When do you go to a toilet? I think almost all people go there to answer the call of nature. Everybody in a lavatory knows why they come here. However, some school children try to hide why they visit a toilet. What for?

For Japanese students pooing at school is a big serious problem. It’s because pooing at school is treated just like a felony among the students. There are some boys at school who break out in a nervous sweat because they can’t do their duty. So, a few schools are considering remodeling their toilets for boy students suffering. The idea is to switch from all urinals to only private rooms in boys’ toilet. If there are only private rooms people can’t guess if they are pooing or not. Then boys will have nothing fear about doing their business.

I understand that school officials have anxiety about boys’ health conditions, but is it a clean solution? I think they should teach children pooing at school is not a disgraceful deed first before renovation. Their idea has a risk of contributing to boys’ attitude and behavior that they are hesitant to poo at school or a public toilet.

The second one, is women’s toilets. In Japan, “otohime, imitative flush sound-generating device” are usually placed on the wall in ladies’ private rooms. The imitative sound helps to mask their noises. Otohime was developed to not waste water because many women flush several times to cover up their noise when they take care of business. The flush sound has been set to about 25 seconds, that time is the women’s average time to need sound.

Are there any special noises, which ladies have to cover up, in private rooms? Maybe I want to mask the sound if I make characteristic sound, something like an elephant call or the whistle of samba. However, I have never seen anybody who has such a problem with strange sounds and suffering about it, so far.

From when did the Japanese start feeling ashamed to do “business” — a physiological phenomenon of human nature? Our toilet situation is an envious dilemma as a developed nation. After people are filled with their desire they will demand more and more, because it’s human nature. Such a nature has helped our lives to become more comfortable. On the other hand it makes other worries which are not necessary.

I’m curious about that how the Japanese toilet situation will change from now. I’m also curious about what envious dilemmas are up-coming next.