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August 29, 2025
 

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TOILETS

Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2022
Beer made from recycled sewage quenches thirst in Singapore
'If you don't tell people it's made from waste water, they probably won't know,” said one drinker.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 31, 2021
Lifting the lid on Shibuya’s designer toilets
The Tokyo Toilet Project has received considerable media coverage for its upscale public facilities. But how do these stylish porcelain thrones actually stack up?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 23, 2021
It's past time we flush the 'weird Japan' narrative
As The Tokyo Toilet project continues, so does the problematic way we frame stories about Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 20, 2020
Tokyo now has transparent public toilets. Let us explain.
Public toilets around the globe have a reputation for being dirty and dangerous. Tokyo recently unveiled new restrooms in public parks that aim to address those concerns.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
May 1, 2020
Cities in Japan flush bad image with upgraded public toilets
Municipalities are teaming up with corporations when carrying out renovations aimed at improving experience for tourists and families.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2020
Japan's next restroom revolution? Phasing out squat toilets for Tokyo 2020
On southwestern Miyajima island, Hiroshima Prefecture, a short walk from one of the country's most famous ancient temple sites, there's a brand new attraction for tourists — a state-of-the art public toilet block nearly as big as a tennis court.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2018
Colorful walls can 'blow away' toilet odor, Japanese study says
Using bathrooms can be an everyday nightmare for children attending Japan's public schools where the restroom is often considered dirty and smelly.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 19, 2018
Tokyo's Toshima Ward adds artistic touch to public lavatories to enhance user-friendliness
Dilemma: You are in a public park in Tokyo and you desperately need the toilet.
WORLD / Society
Aug 27, 2018
Half the world's schools lack clean water, toilets and hand-washing, experts warn
Nearly half the world's schools lack clean drinking water, toilets and hand-washing facilities, putting millions of children at risk of disease, experts warned Monday.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2018
Osaka lavatory signs do more harm than good, say members of LGBT community
Restroom signs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have drawn an unexpected backlash from sexual minorities in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2018
Toto hopes to clean up with new self-cleaning toilets
With the upcoming 2020 Olympics in mind leading Japanese toilet-maker Toto Ltd. has recently introduced a new type of self-cleaning toilet for public restrooms, aiming to improve bathroom experiences for locals and foreign visitors to Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 27, 2017
Japan's farms struggle to upgrade restrooms as people with disabilities bolster depleted ranks
The agriculture industry is faced with the problem of improving toilet facilities for people with disabilities as the movement to hire them on farms spreads amid a nationwide decline in farmers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Nov 5, 2017
A gut feeling that you need an extra toilet
Everybody knows that Japan produces the most technologically advanced toilets in the world. They pretty much do everything except pull up your pants when you're finished. And one of the more pleasant surprises greeting foreign visitors to Japan is the ubiquity and accessibility of public toilets.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 27, 2017
Japan's schools working to upgrade, Westernize lavatories
Dirty, smelly, dark, scary and broken are the five adjectives most commonly used to describe toilets in Japan's public schools.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 13, 2017
Toto rolls out droll toilet humor with a whiff of class
Sit back and relax as this week's Bilingual column splashes on the results of Toto's 2016 Toilet Senryu Contest.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2017
New KDDI service to help people in need find empty toilet cubicles
Tired of waiting in a long line to use the bathroom? The internet may offer a solution.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jun 4, 2016
There's no hiding in Japan's toilets
When it comes to toilets, Japan presents several paradoxes. On the one hand, public toilets are ubiquitous, easy to access and, for the most part, quite clean. On the other hand, they can also be primitive, or at least to a Western sensibility.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 28, 2016
Highway operator taps big data to gauge toilet usage
A recent analysis of big data by Central Nippon Expressway Co. (NEXCO Central) has revealed that more and more men tend to prefer cubicles over urinals in restrooms.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 11, 2016
Toilet-maker Toto looks to Chinese to change cultural habits to boost sales
Nearly all Japanese have converted to using seated toilets since 1977 when they first overtook the squatting versions. For future growth, Japan's largest toilet—maker Toto Ltd. is looking toward neighboring China.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2015
Kyoto turns to toilet etiquette signs in a bid to flush out bad behavior
Japan has rolled out the welcome mat for foreign visitors and this is benefitting businesses nationwide, but there's a not so rosy catch. For the city of Kyoto, one of the most popular destinations for tourists, the result has been reeking public lavatories.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Akazawa's trip to Washington for tariff talks abruptly canceled
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, had been set to fly to Washington on Thursday.
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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