Why I Miss Japanese Toilets

Every foreigner is positively surprised by toilets in Japan. Where do I even start?

Japan has the ウォシュレット (washlet), with so many buttons next to your toilet that you might need a little time to figure out what they all do. You can wash yourself with warm water, and many toilets also have heated seats for when the temperature drops.

I miss the washlets already.

Washing yourself after each toilet visit feels much more hygienic to me, and it also means using much less toilet paper.

And we're not only talking about toilets in private homes. Public toilets in Japan can be surprisingly clean and well-equipped too. We're talking about train stations, roadside stations, and even the RV park where we stayed.

We paid only ¥2,000 to sleep overnight in our little rented camper van (see my blog post about kei camper van trips). The site came with a nice, clean toilet that was free to use 24 hours a day.

Toilets are part of the infrastructure

This toilet culture in Japan is quite impressive.

Especially because public toilets are generally free. This is something I really notice as someone living in the Netherlands, where you sometimes have to pay €1 just to use a toilet.

Along the highways, you have Service Areas with surprisingly large toilet buildings that can accommodate many people — including tour buses. And at michi-no-eki (道の駅), the roadside stations you find throughout Japan, free toilets are part of the basic facilities provided for road users.

I started wondering: why are toilets treated so differently in Japan?

I don't know if there is one simple answer. But I do think there is an understanding that toilets are simply necessary. And if you're going to stop somewhere because you need a toilet, you might as well make the place pleasant.

And then, of course, once people stop, they might eat something, buy local products, have a coffee, or look around the shops.

So yes, I suppose I'm using the word “toilet” quite a lot in this blog post. But it is actually interesting how something so ordinary can be part of a much bigger idea about hospitality, convenience and attracting people to a place.

From something unavoidable to something good

There is a film that made me think about this even more: Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders.

The main character, Hirayama, works as a cleaner of public toilets in Tokyo. The film was inspired by Tokyo's public toilet project, where architects and designers created and renovated public toilets in Shibuya.

The film makes cleaning toilets look almost like a privileged job.

Not because cleaning toilets is glamorous, but because Hirayama takes pride in doing something ordinary well. The toilets are clean, carefully maintained places that everyone can use.

It made me think about something very simple:

If something cannot be avoided, why make the experience more negative than necessary?

Let's make it a good experience instead.

Japanese toilets take something that is completely ordinary — something that everyone needs to do — and make it cleaner, more comfortable and, sometimes, even a little bit enjoyable.