A startup in Nagoya has developed a tiny, portable toilet it has billed as one of the world's smallest and hopes will become an indispensable part of disaster kits across Japan.
Unlike disaster preparedness supplies such as emergency food, just 16.9% of households have some kind of emergency toilet ready, according to a 2018 survey by research group Japan Toilet Labo. Kokenawa Inc. aims to have the toilets, a kind of sturdy bag, change that.
The idea came to company head Yoshinori Kokenawa, 30, when he was volunteering in the city of Nagano in 2019, after Typhoon Hagibis caused the banks of the Chikuma River to burst.