A few months back, I caught the film Perfect Days. The Oscar-nominated movie by renowned director Wim Wenders followed a Japanese toilet janitor who performs his job with pride and dedication – and featured some cool-looking restrooms in Tokyo.
Now, I normally don’t give public toilets a second thought – I walk in, take care of business, wash up and walk out. But the toilets in the movie, which I later learned was part of something called the Tokyo Toilet Project (TTP), got me so intrigued that I decided I wanted to check them out during my Japan trip earlier this month.
THE TOKYO TOILET PROJECT
Launched in 2020 by The Nippon Foundation non-profit organisation, the TTP’s aim was to promote the use of public toilets and remove the stigma of them being dark, unsafe and unsanitary, especially for children and women.
Sixteen world class designers, architects and creatives such as Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma, Shigeru Ban and Nigo were tasked to redesign and improve the accessibility of 17 public toilets situated around the Shibuya district – which explains why many of them look like art installations.
