Japan blew my mind. You're never more than 5 minutes walk away from a free public restroom in any city or town I visited. They were always clean and supplied.

They show up on Maps apps and have reviews. I remember walking a few minutes more once, in Osaka, to try one that had excellent reviews (it was a fun and original design).

In some more rural areas these became squat potties with no toilet paper, so carry a pack of tissues with you.

▲

o_m an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I also was pleasantly surprised of the availability when I visited. But I would recommend bringing your own soap. A lot of the restrooms in the more rural areas, and even some places in the cities, don't have any soap. Hand Sanitizer won't kill norovirus, which usually spreads in restrooms.

▲

atoav an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Japan was amazing in these regards. It truly feels liberating when going somewhere means you literally do not need to worry about that specific thing.

When I first went to Japan I felt like we in the west live like fucking savages.

▲

shoobiedoo 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

What's savage is what Japan does to drug users and dealers. If the west did the same, we'd be a lot cleaner, too, since washrooms wouldn't be open door fentanyl naptime rooms. But at what cost?

For what it's worth I think a middle ground leaning closer to the west is the best approach. Save injection sites like the one in Vancouver have been a disaster, however

▲

squidmaster 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You call it savage, but the result is more civilized. Why should we settle for a middle ground? Why should we negotiate with degenerates who can't even be trusted with a toilet?

There is nothing savage about the way Japan treats those who are incompatible with civilization. On the contrary, to parley with the savages is what makes you a savage too.

▲

Toutouxc 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I live in Europe and public restrooms don’t feel like fentanyl naptime rooms. Maybe that’s more of a North America thing?

	▲	shoobiedoo 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I can only speak for Vancouver. New West, specifically, which is probably more crack-denny than other areas. But yeah, even Starbucks will hang fake "out of order" signs on the door because it's guaranteed to become an impromptu vein shooting gallery at some point during the day.

▲

cindyllm 14 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

▲

user43928 43 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

While that's good, Japan has other issues to worry about.

Since there are no trash cans, you have to carry garbage with you until you're back home, or maybe find another store where you can dispose of it.

The toilet paper and tissues in Japan are extremely thin and in my view quite inconvenient.

▲

bschwindHN 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

People get so hung up on garbage, I don't get it. Keep a single plastic bag with you, put your trash in it. Take it back and throw it away at home or your hotel or wherever you're staying. Most train stations have plenty of garbage cans, and if you're traveling in Japan, you're probably taking a train.

The toilet paper sucks, sure, but that's just cheap single-ply for public use toilets. People can and do buy the good stuff for their homes. Hardly an issue to worry about.

▲

user43928 11 minutes ago | parent [-]

Taking a plastic bag with you to lug around garbage is obviously inconvenient. They could just put up public garbage cans like most of the civilized world.

The hotels and public venues also had the cheap single-ply stuff.

I was not able to find any decent tissues in stores, so I doubt that people all buy the good stuff for their homes.

	▲	orwin a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		In cities, I agree that if you aren't used to it, it might be inconvenient. However, 99% of hikers in Europe carry their own trash bags. It took off in the early 2000 and now it's almost a culture thing, especially amongst young hikers, and not having one is basically a social error (well, littering is, you can always ask people for an empty trash bag if you forgot yours). Honestly I can see why they choose that solution.

▲

pembrook an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Turns out when you're an ethnically homogenous, xenophobic, low immigration country that brutally enforces social norms and anti-drug policy, you can achieve enough compliance to have nice public things even in urban environments.

You cannot have high birth rates, high growth, high immigration, libertarian personal freedoms or much innovation however.

There is no perfect design, only different trade-offs.

▲

saagarjha an hour ago | parent | next [-]

You didn't even mention high trust society this time, I feel like you're slipping

▲

pembrook an hour ago | parent [-]

High trust is a byproduct of an ethnically homogenous society.

I prefer not having good public bathrooms and instead prefer more personal freedoms, economic growth/dynamism, and immigration. But it sounds like you would prefer different trade offs.

I just think its funny that internet populists believe you can have everything. You can't.

▲

saagarjha 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Not that I would particularly like to live there but Singapore has fairly clean public restrooms. I suspect there is more to this than the ethnic makeup of the country.

▲

mft_ 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In the West, I’d argue (from personal experience) that a high trust society probably correlates more with high level of employment and (maybe as a second order effect) reasonably high income.

Taking Switzerland as an example, it’s possible to have a managed/positive approach to immigration and maintain very high societal standards.

▲

CursedSilicon 40 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Your bewildering obsession with "populism" sure does define your entire worldview

	▲	pembrook 36 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Care to offer a rebuttal to any of my statements? Would love to hear you destroy me with superior logic and/or educate me where I'm wrong. Or we can just stick to attacking me personally because what I've said makes you emotionally upset.

▲

JimDabell 33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Singapore is a melting pot of many different ethnicities, it’s not xenophobic, and more than 40% of people living in Singapore are immigrants. And it has extremely low crime.

This lauding of ethnic homogeneity and xenophobia just seems to be a dog whistle from the American right because they want to say “See? If we kicked out all the non-whites it would fix our problems!” it’s not true; It’s just a very, very, very old racist playbook.

▲

squidmaster 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Singapore whips the shit out of degenerate criminals, they don't get coddled as westerners think appropriate. Where there's a whip, there's a way.

▲

JimDabell 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

You sound like a Nazi when you call people degenerates. Was that your intended meaning?

▲

squidmaster 9 minutes ago | parent [-]

My meaning is that people who smear shit on walls are incompatible with civilization and need to be treated as Singapore and Japan treat them, which soft westerners characterize as "savage". When you accommodate degenerates, you degrade society as a whole. That's what it means for somebody to be a degenerate, their behavior degrades society, breaking down nice things we once had. The dearth of public bathrooms is one such result.

Btw I don't care that you call me a nazi. If you think we should be going easy on criminals, you're part of the reason we don't have public bathrooms. Civilization requires upkeep.

▲

qarl 6 minutes ago | parent [-]

It's just that dehumanizing language sounds really Nazi.

It's a tell.

	▲	squidmaster a minute ago \| parent [-]
		The results speak, Singapore and Japan are more civilized than your country or mine, because they whip their degenerates instead of crying about nazis. If your ideology leads us to this, then what use is it?

▲

pembrook 25 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Singapore is just further evidence of my statements being true.

They also brutally enforce social norms and anti-drug policy, and in 2025 they had a total of 35K people granted permanent residency (in a country of 6M people).

In Singapore you're confusing temporary foreign workers with true immigration. In fact Singapore is an extremely low immigration country.

None of these foreign workers qualify for Singapore's public housing or healthcare for example.

I'm pro immigration and left-leaning, but I don't disagree with the right wingers that ethnic homogeneity leads to higher social trust (many studies have demonstrated this). I prefer having immigration though.

	▲	JimDabell 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Also, imo Singapore is just further evidence of my statements being true. Not anything to do with race it isn’t. It’s a direct contradiction to your claims.

▲

tete 38 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Japan is great, because they realized that if you stop giving a fuck about public debt you can make a great country happen.

Who could have thought that with investment rather than letting everything crumble things would get better?

Meanwhile here everyone is close to tears if you propose anything for the public, because that might lead to lowering the tax break for some huge multi national that then would not get the well-deserved pay-off for their lobbying work.

And to be fair who wants to live under a regime that is the worst kind of communism, treating people who want need pee, but don't pay with respect, like Japan? (sarcasm)

▲

NordStreamYacht 40 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Use the bidet. Tissues are for savages.

	▲	khazhoux 32 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Bidets without tissue paper only works for people with very super fiber intake or mega-absorptive intestines. Otherwise, no amount of hot streaming water will wash you completely.