Comfort Zone

Japanese don't like peeing in public facilities. Only 3% of public toilet users in Japan are women.

Apparantly.

[Does my sarcasm come across sufficiently here?]

Anyway, to make women happier pee-ers [come on! who are they kidding. did they ever try to go to the toilet in a cinema? that'd raise their so-called 'only 3%' statistic] Tokyo is introducing a new public toilet.

Except it's not being called a 'toilet', it's being called a 'comfort zone'. According to the news [NHK] this new toilet complex cost 90 BILLION yen. Now, as '90 billion yen' is rather a lot of money, I'm hoping they just mis-translated and actually meant 90 MILLION yen, which is just over £400,000. Although, that doesn't sound so much for the luxery loos, so who knows.

Anyway, they're in Akihabara (geeksville) near the station and for your 100 yen (50p) entry fee you get a polite receptionist who can give you all sorts of information, utter privacy, a toilet seat that replaces itself after every usage AND a floor that cleans after every person.

Can you say 'wasted resources'?

But then, this IS a country where women's loos have machines that make flushing sounds so people can't hear you peeing...