Society

Only 36% of toilets in public high schools are Western-style: lawmaker survey

Nov 21 (Japan Times) - Japan may be known as the world leader when it comes to high-tech toilets, but only 35.8 percent of those in prefectural high schools are Western-style.

That is what a group of national and prefectural lawmakers have found in a survey they commissioned, saying the low rate reflects a lack of government subsidies and low priority for modernizing toilets that were mostly installed in the 1960s and 1970s.

The proportion of Western-style toilets in prefectural high schools is lower than at public elementary and junior high schools, which stood at 43.3 percent in a separate education ministry survey released in November 2016.

The lawmakers' survey, covering around 225,000 toilets in roughly 3,200 prefectural high schools across Japan, found that about 80,000 were the seated variety and 145,000 the squat variety as of April 1.

The lawmakers are promoting the installation of Western-style toilets in schools. Their survey covered all prefectures except Miyagi.

Advocates pushing seated-style toilets cite two reasons: Many students use Western ones at home and are not used to squat toilets, and sitting-style toilets are easier to use for the elderly and disabled when schools are used as disaster evacuation centers.

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