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Nagoya City Council debates if toilet paper really needed in public restrooms

23 Comments
By SoraNews24

For the second year in a row, Nagoya City was voted Japan’s “least appealing city” by a decisive margin. To be fair it was only from a field of eight major Japanese cities, so saying this result means Nagoya is a bad city is like saying a Best Picture Oscar nominee is a bad movie because it didn’t win.

Still, it certainly means some self-examination is in order for city officials to find out what is making Nagoya the Hitchcock of Japanese cities. The Nagoya City Council is convening for this very reason and starting with the question: “Do you think it’s because we don’t have toilet paper in our public restrooms?”

Currently, anyone who visits one of the public toilets in Nagoya’s 600 parks, especially in haste, would be dismayed to find that no paper is provided. There aren’t even any toilet paper holders to eliminate any doubt that you just happened to enter at a bad time.

The case for toilet paper was succinctly and passionately laid out by councilman Yoshinori Matsui: “To increase the appeal of Nagoya… To make foreign and Japanese tourists think, ‘I had a nice time visiting Nagoya…’ In the spirit of hospitality… Wouldn’t it be better to have toilet paper in the parks?”

It’s certainly hard to argue with that, but some people are. Opponents of the TP initiative are citing costs and potential for mischief as reasons and reminding all that Nagoya had flirted with public toilet paper in the past but with disastrous results. Assistant manager for the Nagoya City Environmental Works Park Maintenance Division Katsuyoshi Shimosa recalls:

“Entire rolls were thrust into toilet bowls. Sometimes they went missing altogether.”

Most would probably argue this is part and parcel for a major city in an effort to provide the most basic of comforts to residents and visitors alike. Online commenters certainly did just that as they had trouble understanding why this debate is even needed.

“Yeah, we need toilet paper.”

“Nagoya… Come on now.”

“Don’t they know there are special holders that prevent people from stealing?”

“That’s not very appealing at all.”

“Wow, I thought toilet paper was standard practice everywhere.”

“So, Nagoya is saying that they can’t use toilet paper because they can’t trust their citizens with it. That’s not appealing.”

“Why bother even having toilets if there’s no paper?”

If we may play Nagoya-advocate, one wouldn’t have to have lived so long in Japan to remember the time when a lot of public toilets all across the country didn’t have paper. Instead, you were supposed to carry your own (the packs of “pocket tissue” with ads stuffed inside that companies hand out for free on the streets of Japan were handy candidates) or buy a pack from the vending machine in restrooms which were equipped with one. In fact, it wasn’t until this decade that Osaka began righting the wrong of paperless facilities in earnest. So, Nagoya really isn’t that far behind other major cities in this regard.

Source: Chukyo TV News, Itai News

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- New Japanese toilet paper dispenser tears off sheets, folds the ends into a point for you【Video】

-- Crafts for grown-ups! Make your own portable smartphone speakers with toilet paper tubes

-- Squat toilets’ popularity fading as parents call for them to be abolished in Japanese schools

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

23 Comments
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Tsurumai Park loos always have paper - until it runs out that is, which it only does during festivals and hanami.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Of course if Nagoya City wants a definitive answer to that conundrum, then just remove the toilet paper from the municipal buildings....

18 ( +19 / -1 )

Have you seen the condition of a toilet in a municipal park in Nagoya? Lack of toilet paper is maybe number 6 on my list of reasons to never ever ever use one.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@kurisupisu - I suspect that their loos sluice and blow-dry their nether regions for them; no need for paper :)

4 ( +4 / -0 )

just install washlets that have blowdriers as well. Problem solved

6 ( +6 / -0 )

What color are the walls ?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In these toilets do not linger, use some paper, not your finger.

If no paper can be found, then wipe your arse upon the ground.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Squat toilets should everywhere in Japan. Easy to sit without touching anything and poop it and it will go down into hole quickly.

Modern squat toilets instead of western toilets will solve this issue.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

Squat toilets should everywhere in Japan. Easy to sit without touching anything and poop it and it will go down into hole quickly.

And for those of us who are getting on in years or have back problems... how's that going to work?

10 ( +12 / -2 )

Really, toilet without any toilet papers? What do the city council members use in their home? Let us in on the secret of wiping your backside without any papers; even the cave man used leaves and smooth river stones.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Loo

Terrible word. I respect the plebby toilet, bog, khazi, can or the snooty lavatory or WC, but I’ve got no time for that awful, wispy-washy middle class compromise ‘loo’. The US euphemisms like washroom are abominable.

Come on. Take a side in this fight.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

You can say 'toilet paper' but not 'public toilets'. Silly.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Nagoya parsimony! No toilet paper in public restrooms! Imagine what people must be forced to do. It may be worthy of Rabelais’ worst scatological humor. Scenarios come to mind but I will keep them to myself, unless I get an official invitation.

The Nagoya situation is extreme. But it brings up the primitive state of many of this nation’s public toilets, particularly at parks and national monuments. In Kyoto the most ancient and beautiful temples and shrines have toilets that would make a maggot gag. Himeji JR Station has state-of-art toilets. But wander on out to the castle and hope for constipation.

Kobe is wonderful. We have all the toilet paper and it does not go to waste. I mean in the improper way of course.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

They can follow Kyoto and the rest and introduce their own form of lodging tax to promote tourism just call it toilet paper tax. Voila!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Terrible word. I respect the plebby toilet, bog, khazi, can or the snooty lavatory or WC, but I’ve got no time for that awful, wispy-washy middle class compromise ‘loo’. The US euphemisms like washroom are abominable.

Come on. Take a side in this fight.

I always liked the Irish term "jacks".

And let me tell you; the greaseproof paper that used to pass for toilet roll in some of the Republic's jacks, back in the day, would put you off something major.

Kudos to Japan having a lot of public toilets to avail of, even if some of them are, er, bog-standard.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If TP is not going to be provided for free, then at least make it available for a small charge. Or, we could go back to using grass and corn cobs.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

And let me tell you; the greaseproof paper that used to pass for toilet roll in some of the Republic's jacks, back in the day, would put you off something major.

When I was at school in the UK the toilets all had the horrible, non-absorbant tracing paper like toilet roll. Izal, it was called.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Nagoya not doing much to defy its label of Japan's ugliest city

3 ( +3 / -0 )

You can squat on modern toilet as well. Just squat on the toilet seat.

People piss on the seat and don't clean and people just sit on that seat with dirty paper on it, still it won't cover full thighs, bacteria surrounded and when u poop, sometimes the water splashes on butt because of the force.

But when u squat on modern toilet seat, your shoes are on the seat and make your back straight and poop comes out smoothly. No any body parts will touch the toilet. Blood circulation also become good.

In Asia and even in airports in Middle east and Asia..there are squat toilets...Kamasutra style.

Naturally and Practically traditonal squat toilet is more healthier than Modern toilets but it should be properly designed in larger or better way.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

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