May 02 (Japan Times) - Dimly lit, stinky and dirty, toilets at a park in Yamaguchi Prefecture are scaring away local children and sparking calls from citizens for renovations.
Growing pressure is now on the city of Iwakuni, which runs the park, to follow a nationwide trend toward sprucing up public toilets as part of an effort to attract tourists and support families with children.
“The restroom is dimly lit and the pit toilets inside are filthy. My daughter is scared to go inside and she won’t use it even if she needs to relieve herself,†a 40-year-old housewife said of her 3-year-old daughter.
The toddler’s reaction is nothing new. In fact, a local kindergarten decided last year to stop taking its children to the city’s Tsuzumigaura Park, where the toilets in question are located, for a field trip because they were scared by a swarm of flies hovering over the toilet bowls.
Efforts by the kindergarten staff to clean the premises and spray insecticide beforehand bore little fruit. This prompted the kindergarten to change the destination of its excursion to a different park nearby where Western-style flush lavatories are installed.
Having opened in 1990, the park is famous for its large-scale playground equipment and observatories, and has long enjoyed a reputation as a popular destination for families from both within and outside of the prefecture. But most toilets in the park are pit latrines, which are unpopular with children accustomed to using flush toilets.
According to Iwakuni’s urban development division, 105 out of the 251 parks in the city currently have toilets. Of those, about 40 percent are pit toilets. But even flush types, which tend to be found in newer parks closer to the center of the city, can smell badly.
Tokyo is not outside of the trend, either. Wards in the capital have been taking steps to refurbish public restrooms in anticipation of a surge in tourists both from across the nation and overseas ahead of the Olympics.
Toshima Ward has been working toward making toilets in 24 of its parks more artistic by having their walls painted with portraits of children. It has also developed a map showing where public toilets are located, including those in convenience stores, as well as information such as which ones are equipped with diaper changing tables or have barrier-free access.
