“Hi toilet,” one says, stepping into a doorway that automatically slides shut behind her.
The group of four has embarked on a toilet tour of Tokyo’s Shibuya ward, spending two hours 4,950 yen ($32.76) each to visit nine of the 17 avant-garde public restrooms that have been built in the district since 2020.
“There’s nothing else like this in Japan right? It’s unusual, it’s unique, it’s honestly brilliant,” said 69-year-old Takao Karino, visiting from Osaka.
The orb-shaped toilet that Karino visited was created by British designer Miles Pennington. Other restrooms on the itinerary were designed by well-known Japanese architects including Kengo Kuma, designer of the renovated Tokyo Olympic stadium, and Pritzker Prize winner Tadao Ando.
“In the U.S. or in France where I originally come from, you just don’t go (to public toilets),” said French visitor Penelope Panczuk.
Panczuk was originally drawn to the tour by the promise of visiting locations from “Perfect Days”, the Oscar-nominated film by German director Wim Wenders about a Shibuya toilet cleaner.
“Here in Tokyo you're really happy to go because they’re extremely clean, they’re very safe and each one is so different it feels like it’s a new discovery each time,” she added.
The Tokyo Toilet Project, started in 2020 by The Nippon Foundation non-profit recruited creators to revamp 17 public commodes in the Shibuya ward to promote accessibility and artistic hospitality.
The toilets weren’t originally conceived as a tourist destination, but Shibuya’s local government saw an opportunity to broaden the area’s tourist appeal from the famously chaotic scramble crossing outside Shibuya rail station.
“Dark, dirty, smelly and scary” are the words that come to mind when most people think of public toilets. These don't feel like toilets, they’re clean, they’re bright, and even children can easily access them,” said Yumiko Nishi, a tourist association manager from Tokyo’s Shibuya ward.
“We created these remarkable public toilets and by using these, we wanted to take vistors around less-visited parts of Shibuya so that people can see these toilets while enjoying the district-- not just around the station area,” Nishi said.
The toilet tours program started in March and coincides with a sharp recovery in tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors are flocking to Japan at a record pace, drawn by a slide in the yen that’s made it affordable for many super fans of the culture to take in its sights and quirks for the first time.
And along with temples and cherry blossoms, some of Japan’s more recent objects of adoration are its multi-functional toilets, made by TOTO and others. Such is the fame of Japanese toilets that the animated comedy “South Park” devoted an entire episode to them, and hip-hop impresario DJ Khaled gushed on Instagram about a gift of four TOTO bowls from the rapper Drake.
