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This is always a fun thing to explain to people at home in Tokyo. "Oh wow this office building put the toilet outside the security cordon." "What." "Well the g

This is always a fun thing to explain to people at home in Tokyo. "Oh wow this office building put the toilet outside the security cordon." "What." "Well the guard checking badges is there and the toilet is outside that, so, well, that would never happen [in a big city in US]." "... Do you think the valuable things in this building are stored... in the toilet?" "Ah, no, that's not the nature of the problem." "What is..." "... It's complicated." "How complicated can it be?" "It's actually not complicated but more of a taboo to acknowledge."

draw_down 6y ago
So funny that we all just blithely assume people of other cultures are insane idiots for not doing what we do.
tkgally 6y ago
In addition to the economic, political, and social factors discussed elsewhere in these comments, the notion of “taboo” also, I think, helps to explain the difference between the availability of public toilets in the U.S. and in Japan (and maybe other Asian countries). Nicholas Kristof’s column has a kind of “taboo-breaking” undertone, as if he is aware that he is writing about a subject that would normally not be mentioned in the New York Times. And, in fact, I don’t recall seeing similar articles more than a few times before in nearly six decades of reading mainstream U.S. print media. In contrast, in Japan, where I’ve been reading mainstream newspapers for nearly four decades, the topic is not taboo at all, and it’s not unusual to see articles about public toilets and related matters. A search at Google News in Japanese now finds recent articles (some paywalled, all in Japanese) about a survey of public toilets in Okayama City [1], a move to build more Western-style public toilets in Matsumoto City [2], a video released by Chiba Prefecture to promote better manners by users of public toilets [3], installation of a self-cleaning toilet in a park in Kamiamakusa City [4], and (timed to the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster) local governments preparing emergency toilets for future disasters [5]. Most of these articles seem to be based on press releases from local governments. [1] https://www.sanyonews.jp/article/1107034 https://www.sanyonews.jp/article/1107034 [2] https://www.shimintimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/post-12877.php https://www.shimintimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/post-12877.php [3] https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOFB168BZ0W1A210C2000000/ https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOFB168BZ0W1A210C2000000/ [4] https://kumanichi.com/news/id128124 https://kumanichi.com/news/id128124 [5] https://www.niigata-nippo.co.jp/news/politics/20210309603080.html https://www.niigata-nippo.co.jp/news/politics/20210309603080...

draw_down 6y ago

So funny that we all just blithely assume people of other cultures are insane idiots for not doing what we do.

tkgally 6y ago

In addition to the economic, political, and social factors discussed elsewhere in these comments, the notion of “taboo” also, I think, helps to explain the difference between the availability of public toilets in the U.S. and in Japan (and maybe other Asian countries). Nicholas Kristof’s column has a kind of “taboo-breaking” undertone, as if he is aware that he is writing about a subject that would normally not be mentioned in the New York Times. And, in fact, I don’t recall seeing similar articles more than a few times before in nearly six decades of reading mainstream U.S. print media. In contrast, in Japan, where I’ve been reading mainstream newspapers for nearly four decades, the topic is not taboo at all, and it’s not unusual to see articles about public toilets and related matters. A search at Google News in Japanese now finds recent articles (some paywalled, all in Japanese) about a survey of public toilets in Okayama City [1], a move to build more Western-style public toilets in Matsumoto City [2], a video released by Chiba Prefecture to promote better manners by users of public toilets [3], installation of a self-cleaning toilet in a park in Kamiamakusa City [4], and (timed to the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster) local governments preparing emergency toilets for future disasters [5]. Most of these articles seem to be based on press releases from local governments. [1] https://www.sanyonews.jp/article/1107034 https://www.sanyonews.jp/article/1107034 [2] https://www.shimintimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/post-12877.php https://www.shimintimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/post-12877.php [3] https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOFB168BZ0W1A210C2000000/ https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOFB168BZ0W1A210C2000000/ [4] https://kumanichi.com/news/id128124 https://kumanichi.com/news/id128124 [5] https://www.niigata-nippo.co.jp/news/politics/20210309603080.html https://www.niigata-nippo.co.jp/news/politics/20210309603080...