I understand you're trying to keep this upbeat but I think you missed part of the problem in North America. I'm a janitor and I assure you not all the problems with public restrooms are from the homeless, that has just exacerbated the problem. People are if not self-centered, at least not thinking about others when they use any public facilities. Throwing trash on the floor and minor and major vandalism are common even in commercial restrooms. There is a systemic cultural bias towards selfish thinking. Any public area is someone else's problem to take care. Put as many public restrooms up as you want and someone will scrawl on the walls, throw trash on the floors, and not flush the toilets leading to a decline in the restroom and increasing upkeep. They'll look you in the eye when they do it as well, daring you to say anything, I have it happen on a regular basis. I wish we had places like you describe in Japan but I don't believe it's possible in our culture.
I wish I could pin your comment. I was thinking through the video that this issue has its roots in collectivist vs individualistic frames of thinking in society. I think all cultures have problems, but it would be nice to crank up the empathy for others when it comes to individuals. You do seriously valuable work, and not enough people see it that way. Thank you, sincerely.
They recently made a Japanese movie called "Perfect Days" and it's about a Japanese public toilet cleaning dude just enjoying his days chilling and doing his job and it was slightly repetitive but honestly therapeutic... would recommend checking it out
Can I just say how much I appreciate that you enunciate your words? 😍 as someone who is hard of hearing I click away so fast while trying to listen to someone who frequently slurs their words/mumbles and/or changes their volume in a sentence (like when someone says something quietly to themselves on camera). You’re the best. Thank you! 🙏🏻
There is also the fact that schools in Japan do not have janitors, the students actually have to clean the school themselves, so if they trash it then they have to clean it. It's something that is taught from kindergarten, so it is ingrained in the culture. Which is why if someone litters in Japan, like even tossing cigarette butts, the general reaction from everyone around even if they don't say it is, "Gross! Do you not realize someone else has to clean your mess?! Are you really that childish, irresponsible, or just some type of sociopath?!"
@@ZombieJitsu It's not entirely without issues though, like a teacher has to be still present at school, which they usually are since they're doing paperwork. In some cases it is also used as part of detention or having stay back at school because of poor behavior or performance. However, generally there is a roster system, but say for example you have sports or extracurricular activities on a day that you are rostered, then you would have to negotiate with someone else to trade days, and so in that sense it teaches social skills. There are issues with bullying to some extent as well, such as if someone who is a bully pressuring another kid to do it instead or people being jerks and slacking off so the people that are actually doing it can't go home until it's done and it's more work.
@@tats8666 even with all that, I still think it should be adopted and applied here in the states. I believe it will also help with discipline. But I understand nothing comes with its own problems. As what they say the proof is in the pudding; look at the society in Japan compared to the states.
@@ZombieJitsu I'm not going to get into a debate regarding which society is better (I haven't lived in the states or Canada), because I believe we can both at least agree on the fact that there are positives and negatives of either one or the other which are different in some ways or may be similar in others, and that is a matter of perspective or perception and also personal preferences or biases. Yes it is good for discipline and teaching children that it's important to contribute to your surroundings, environment, people around you, and society as a whole, which is part of the point of schools. Some people argue that it's taken to an extreme, but asides from toilets, the Japanese are famous for having lots of vending machines and yet somehow everywhere is clean, so the benefit of having the convenience of vending machines maybe every couple of hundred meters could be viewed as coming at a cost to people having to work harder to be more clean and respectful and so that convenience exists or because people work hard and are clean and respectful so the convenience exists, and either way the people who live in Japan want to live in a society that is clean, convenient, and respectful of others.
@@ZombieJitsu True, that's why I think the better solution would be the one where there're still janitors formally working on that. But their job burden obligatedly have to be eased by students based on roster decided by both the school and classes altogether. These janitors also act as supervisor in enforcing all those agreed turns by student in doing these cleaning duties, so no one could easily make run away from doing them through bullying. Of course it's not a bulletproof thing, but still better than each end of spectum here.
It isn't just that North America has a homeless problem. It is cultural. The Japan had a homeless problem spike about 15 years not as bad as what is happening in the US or Canada but big here. Osaka Castle Park had a large tent city. The homeless on their own set up a neighborhood association. Set out the tent spaces. They organized government garbage pick up. Policed themselves to a large extent. Helped residents with mental problems etc. The public toilets in the park could still be used by park visitors and tourists no problem. There was a shanty built by a couple under a bridge next to the river in the center of Kyoto. They lived there for 3 years. They took up half of the bike/walking lane. There was never any garbage or dirtiness. They had a sign on the building apologizing for being an annoyance.
Peak od japan homlessness was 25k while california have 150 RN. Helping people with mental problem problems is nice way of saying throw them in closed mental asylum. Japan have like 25 times more psychiatric beds then USA per capita.
@@insolencePL are you saying mental care is a bad thing? in 2023 over 181k people spend the night homeless in California, and around 650k across the us. i do wonder what your point is? helping people with mental issues doesn't inherently mean throw them in an asylum does it? having more beds available for people in need is not a bad thing, helping them get back on their feet. there are obviously examples of certain mental hospitals not being very helpful (especially in the past), however it is the intention to help those people move on with their lives at some point. i'd argue that in america there is a huge lobby intent on keeping mental care unavailable in order to feed other markets, like the prison system or pharmacies.
@@mouse2542 My point was that involuntary asylum is a major way in which Japan is taking care of it's homless that are mentally ill which often refuse help. I am in fact in favor of expanding network of those asylums. Calling it help from community while it being in fact state run network of prisons with psychiatric help build in is missing the point.
It is a homeless problem, but it's also an imported problem. Before the flood gates of immigration, bathrooms were much cleaner. Before the floodgates of welfare that created entitled classes, the bathrooms were much cleaner. Just look at all the diseases in America today that were eradicated. You don't get a rise in eradicated diseases from local populations. You get it by importing it. The US was transport/sewage/public systems were designed largely for about 200 million people. We've since added over 140 million from outside of the country. That means over twice as much wear and tear, because increases aren't proportional. You put twice as many cars on a road and you don't just get twice the rate needed to repair roads, you get 5 and 10 times the rate needed. The only difference is the problem has become soo big that they simply stopped most of the upkeep and repair. Look at roads and sidewalks in many cities, they haven't been replaced or even repaired in more than 50 years, or they're continually repaired just to keep them functioning. The same happens with things like sewer systems. When you're flushing 350 million poops down systems designed for only 200 million, it might work for a while, but eventually something gives and the overall lifespan of the constructions are reduced. At the same time, these imported people and entitled welfare classes have become such a burden on the country that they take far more than they give back, which results in the ones that do actually provide the money and labor, getting even less than ever for their money and efforts, which results in a systemwide reduction in the standard of living for everyone, including the leeches. The US is over 40 trillion in debt. People need to wake up and realize that means the bank account is not only empty, it's over drafted. We're not even running on fumes anymore.
@@insolencePL there is a diffrence with locking up someone under the guise of mental health and actualy treating them. if its good medical help one woukd think they would seek it out willingly.
You should look into Singapore. The founder of Singapore actually made it a cornerstone of building Singapore to have clean toilets everywhere. Having unclean toilets will actually shut down your business here.
Xi in China also made it a priority to build public bathrooms. These days I walk down some rundown village community or some alley and there's a clean well-lit toilet with flush toilets and white tiles. The norm in 2010 was a trough that you shit into without doors.
@@hufficag And you failed to mention the many others sham that were just built for xinnie pooh eyeballs but actually useless and not connected to any sewage.
@@randomyoutubebrowser5217there it is! You're asking the real questions. Drug addicts don't take care of their own bodies, so why would they take care of public spaces?
My intuition tells me that the reason is that our culture is more interested in money/power and individualism, those two things combine mean "Why waste money on a communal wellbeing if it will not net me any immediate tangible gain?".
In the superindividualistic region of Flanders 'Toiletmadam' (f/m) is one of the better earning jobs you can do without a college degree. There it is a tradition to pay to go to public toilets, that are constructed by public-like services (like railwaystations, concert venues and shopping centers) but ran and maintained by a private person. Which works, but, ... They did not have these functions to provide for homeless people, as being homeless, due to the historically extensive social services, is perceived by many as a choice and a crime (only a few decades ago, anyone on the street with less than enough coin to buy a loaf of bread in their pockets would be arrested for vagrancy and sent to live in a gated community, and kids would be stopped by their parents before they left the house to make sure they had a handkerdhief and the equivalent of a dollar on them, at the risk of being picked up by the Imperial Guard or 'Rijkswacht' never to be seen again). Nowadays though it seems being homeless is the norm and the police is your friend and people living on the street commit crimes hoping to be arrested so they get a meal and a roof, but the friendly police refuse to arrest them because the prisons are full.
It starts at school, where children are deprived of almost any sense of collective action and are all conditioned to individualism through elbow mentality and consumerism. If you then become homeless and feel completely excluded from that society, you also lose any sense of community and therefore respect for things that are provided collectively.
@@danieljung2810 And Individualism, two things combined, not money as a sole factor. I've seen that Japanese culture has a huge focus on not standing out as an individual.
The same people with this mentality will also be the first to turn their noses up, sneer, and/or complain about dirty public spaces that they routinely have to pass through daily. The mental gymnastics required for that level of cognitive disconnect must be painful.
In Germany, toilets in public places usually have attendants. Frequently, retirees work there to supplement their pensions (I think...). They sit in secure booths behind thick glass and keep an eye on the place. Suspicious behavior results in a quick call to building security; they keep everything stocked up; and when nobody is around, they clean the place. They always have a tip jar, and people frequently drop in a one or two euro coin. Seems to work pretty well.
The problem in Germany and Europe in general is that you must pay to use most public toilets, which are not particularly well-maintained in spite of that
@Tangoman82 I think the level of maintenance depends on the location. I'm from London and I've seen public toilets in all states. I've seen free ones in good condition and paid ones in terrible condition and vice versa. Pretty much the same thing in European cities visited, with surprisingly Zurich being the most average, but having to pay 2-3 Francs to use it. Tbh though, when it comes to cleanliness, I've been to festivals and toilets there are horrible and pub toilets are always mess, so I'll happily take "minimally acceptable" cleanliness for a quid in a train station just for the convenience of a public toilet. I never poop in them if I can help it, so I rarely spend more than a minute or two inside
In Switzerland we're probably kinda in the middle. What always bothers me in the US is that there are never any toilet brushes available to clean after yourself if needed. I was raised to check the toilet after I flush it and clean it if there's a trace. I do that no matter if I'm at my home, at a friend's, at work, at a hotel or in a public restroom. And in Switzerland, there is alwas a brush available right next to the toilet. But for some reason, it's not the case in the US. TMI: I remember how horrified I was when I was in the US in a hotel with my partner for the first time, and I could not clean the streak I had left in the toilet.
Same like in Mozambique. I have been in many hotels around the world and in some high end ones. Many didn't have a brush neither. I don't want anybody else cleaning my traces and I don't want to look at them more than once.
In Germany people pay extra to not have brushes. Add cameras in public toilets and Republicans in the US will fund hundreds of thousands of them around the country - secretly.
I'd like to see a study on how lack of public toilets in north america has contributed to people not leaving their house as much. You can only go to the bathroom if you're near a store, and then only during store hours. People plan their trips based on being able to use the bathroom. At some point people give up and only visit known "safe" areas that will have a bathroom.
Yep. American culture can't be assed to think of anyone but itself, and considers public service a waste of resources on people other than themselves. A philosophy adhered to even to their own detriment. So you have to convince Americans to accidentally care about the public through purely self-interested motivations. Here, watch this: X -- You must provide an open space with adequate amenities to encourage the joy of existing in public life... Yes -- You must make existing in public comfortable so that PEOPLE SPEND MORE MONEY THERE. Only when those dots connect do Americans take action on any subject.
Wow I live in the third largest metropolis in America and I've never heard people manage their movements based on proximity to bathrooms.... You may not have heard of this thing called traffic which is much more likely to curb behavior
i completely agree. i visited new york and i was honestly shocked at the lack of public toilets. pretty much everywhere i went, the only toilets available were for businesses and they only allowed staff to use the restroom. sometimes, they would allow paying customers to use the restroom and i would have to buy some shit i didn't want or need and was quite overpriced just so i could pee. weirdly enough, i ended up at the met several times to use the toilets because their pay what you want fee ended up being cheaper than all the other options available to me. i tried using the public toilets in central park a couple of times but they were so disgusting they were just unusable. i'm talking pee on the floor (i'm a woman) and clogged toilets and no soap and nothing to clean the pee ridden seats and no toilet paper. people had started throwing their period products on the floor because the trash was overflowing. the shocking thing is, pay-to-use restrooms are not even an option. i'm indian and i've travelled quite a bit and usually countries that don't really have public toilets tend to have toilets you have to pay a small feel to use, which they use to keep up maintenance. in india this was usually around 5 rupees and in a couple of european countries it was about 50 cents. this isn't ideal of course since normal bodily functions shouldn't cost you extra and this puts unnecessary strain on low income folks, but it was still an option. the us should at least try this model so that at least some form of usable public toilet is available.
@@pavelow235 then you're lucky enough to never have this as an issue. some of us need to use the restroom at shorter intervals and once we learn that they aren't going to be readily available we have to start taking proximity to restrooms into account in our every day lives. i'm a woman and whenever i'm on my period i need to use the restroom every 2ish hours, and because i need to do more than just pee i need a clean restroom to use with stuff like soap and tp available. this has genuinely stopped me from going out on some days in big metropolitan cities in the us because of low public restroom availability. or i go out and then immediately turn around and go back to the hotel or friend's place i was staying at because i can actually use the restroom there. some people just cant hold their pee very long (children, elderly, pregnant women, people with bladder issues) and so need to be reasonably close to a public restroom all the time. this is not an issue for civilized countries. i grew up in thailand and i never had to worry about when or where i would be able to find a public restroom even in relatively rural areas because there were always clean public restrooms stocked with soap and tp and had working bidets.
@@ishathakor Just a tip for future visits, department stores often have some of the nicest bathroom in NYC. Macy's and Bloomingdale's are always very clean. Stay away from parks unless you're desperate.
I live in Vancouver. We cannot maintain clean, quality public washrooms for the same reasons we cannot leave our bicycles unlocked and our windows unbarred. Our society and value system is simply just not built up the concepts of respect for the greater good and community importance. Everything here needs vandalism/theft mitigation and overwhelmingly expensive maintenance and repairs. It's disheartening.
it used to be wasnt that long ago you could leave your bike without fear of it getting stolen in the USA, it all started to chnage in the early 70's after all them raceriots
@@blakespower in Denmark, we can leave our bike without fear of it being stolen : the country has had a Social-Democrats government for decades, pro-progress , pro-sciences, the Conservatives are non-existent, there's no Trump in sight, and it's the most civilised country in the world ....
@@blakespower in Denmark, we can leave our bike without fear of it getting stolen : the country is ruled by Social-Democrats for decades, pro-progress , pro-sciences, the Conservatives are non-existent, there's no T in sight, and it's the most civilised country in the world ....
In 2022 we can read in the article: Germany's capital Berlin is the European city with the worst public toilets, with a cleanliness score of just 0.16/5, and almost one in ten (9.58%) of its reviews including words synonymous with "dirty". London is also among the cities with the dirtiest toilets, with a score of just 0.32/5. The best 4.85/5 Finland's capital city Helsinki👍
Well... We need to consider what's the population of Berlin and London, compared to Helsinki, though this does NOT play as an excuse. Also, I guess the variety of "social levels" (can I call them like that, without being discriminative? I hope so..) between all the people of the first two, compared to what I assume is a more "levelled" population of the Finnish capital, makes it harder to educate the same percentage of people, in order to not need to spend billions on "simple maintenance of public toilets". In other words: the average overall education in Helsinki I'm pretty sure is way higher than Berlin and London. But we still love those cities anyway, don't we? We'll just go for a coffee or something, or is it "too much italian"? 😅
Mind that most bars and restaurants in Germany let you use their restrooms if you just ask. There also might be a law that forces them to allow you to do so, but I'm not sure about it. Though it would fit with article one of the German constitution about dignity being protected. It would also help avoiding a fine for doing your business publicly. I.e. there is no need for it. In any case, asking politely never hurts and got me directed to the restroom in the few emergencies I had in this regard.
Interestingly enough, Helsinki also has a distinctly high number of public saunas per capita; there's a few similarities to a public bathing culture there.
Yes, because in Berlin public toilets are just bum nests. And police are doing nothing because of leftist government, which allows people any crimes if they can't pay a fine.
I was at a Target near Disneyland yesterday, and I saw a Japanese tourist loaded his groceries into an Uber and then pushed the cart back into carts corral inside the store before getting into his Uber. At the same time I saw other people just left their carts at the parking space right next to their cars and drive off instead of pushing it to the carts corral nearby. We can’t have nice things in America because we got too many individual who only care about themselves and nobody else.
The hinges on a public door are on the outside so that when a person dies or faints on the toilet you can get the door off to help or remove them. People fall forward blocking the door.
@cheekybeannn Id be more worried about a power outagemaking the glass translucent whilst you are using the amenities. Dont worry power is needed to make the glass clear not the other way around.
I was a bit 'shocked' at the janitor being willing to wipe the parts of the toilet bowls & urinals directly with his gloved hands; I thought a brush on a stick with tongs would've been used instead
It's opposite world. The more people you have living on the streets, the more public restrooms you need to make available. You can't just refuse people housing and toilets and then arrest them and put them on the pervert list, coz they had to go piss in the bushes.
sadly the world isnt' going to get better but worse. it's a spiral effect. Rich want more, raise prices, everything costs more, people can't afford it, use credit card, end up on the streets and sick from the fast food they ate all their lives.
@@doggytheanarchist7876 so... they trick to treat humans inhumane is to dehumanize them. When you learn to see this trick you will see it everywhere. Homeless, migrant, drug users etc. Why try to solve the problem when you can solve the symptoms. Benches you cannot sleep on toilets where you can't find your vanes etc.
@@MrFernanrc well that's very doomer of you. The world gets better and worse in Waves. Some things improve and some are ruined. But. If we work together and eat the rich I'm sure it'll be a whole lot better soon.
I worked as a semi-truck driver, and in Europe, there are some great that automaticly wash themselves and get desinfected..The all floor erases against wall to wash..
Your channel is fantastic - the different topics you talk about never cease to amaze me. Thank you to speak about urbanism, hygiene, health and wealth issue and public facility
I suspect that at chambers of commerce meetings in US cities, you'll hear opposition to public restrooms as facilitating congregation of unhoused people. In our cities, the loudest voices in local government view penalty and deterrence as the only solution to social problems.
I usually skip sponsors, but this one seemed like genuinely a good thing. I want to learn more about the world so I gave it a download and wasn't disappointed. Great video as always. God Bless you
This is a little gem of a video! A topic not often addressed. I remember that years ago, when Queen Elizabeth was on official visits to America, she was complaining of the lack of public toilets. When you showed the stats, it strongly confirmed this impression.
I read somewhere that the Japanese sees the toilet space as something sacred and essential. It's a place where they can unwind after a long day and just be alone. That is why even though houses in Japan, especially in Tokyo, despite being notoriously confided, will somehow always fit in a proper toilet and an actual bathtub!
And some toilets have a sound system so that you can't hear the pooping adding to privacy You can even buy just the sound thing if your toilet doesn't have it. Our toilet played classical music but we thought it was annoying so we switched it off
I think it's more to do with the fact that other countries have resorted to gouging their citizens, rather than treating them as the lifeblood of the country, many governments and businesses in other countries are merely there to extract as much as possible out of each person. And its been going on for so long that even the quality isn't there anymore, because since everyone is doing it, there's nowhere else to turn. So you end up with a massive decline in quality of life from things that used to be common place, becoming practically out of reach for most people. After all, why try harder if less will do? So you end up with these cheaply built things like bathrooms. In the 90's, most home bathrooms were pretty nice. Nowadays they're pretty barebones, with linoleum tile rather than actual ceramic tile, the cheapest bargain bin toilets, and a plastic tub, which used to also be ceramic and steel. Heck, most showers landlords put into homes these days are those single piece plastic ones, and they generally also come pretty thin material wise, enough that they can easily be flexed by hand. And people are paying 4 times for all that than they used to for bathrooms built much nicer and of much better materials. The problem goes way beyond bathrooms though, which only amplifies just how pervasive it is.
I live in NJ, like 30 minutes from NYC. All my friends think I hate going to the city because it's loud or because I don't like public transportation. No. The main reason why I hate going to NYC is the pee anxiety I get. I hate it. Let me piss in the comfort of NJ thank you very much.
Well the new toilets in Grand Central in the LIRR hall are actually excellent. Not sure if it will last, but so far always clean and extremely well maintained. In the old Grand Central terminal, it's a different story...
Thank you for starting this kind of discussion! And I love how you bring you approach these problems with curiosity rather than an all-knowing attitude. I'd love to see more of this kind of content on RUclips!
I used to have a stall at the Crossroads flea market in Calgary, back when the Crossroads flea market was actually in the Crossroads building. I miss it so much. there was a community there among the vendors that malls just don't have. It's the closest thing I can think of that we have here to the market clusters like they have in Japan.
"Do we think that access to a decent public toilet is a human right?" See, I don't think it's the infrastructure that's a problem. Yes, there can be more of it--however, it's the PEOPLE that are different. In Japan, the people believe in keeping the community safe, clean, pristine, etc. Granted, Japan's population isn't perfect, but in terms of why Japan has better communal spaces? Because Japan has better *communities*. The infrastructure can stand to be improved, yes. But the difference in people is night and day--something that's a stubborn fact that some do not like to acknowledge.
So maybe it’s also a human right to provide better access to childcare, and education then? Maybe people, when invested in by their society as heavily as they are in Japan, aren’t as bad as you make it seem. Maybe our current systems produce these ‘worse people’ you hate.
I think there's an interplay between the infrastructure and the society in both cases. It's not necessarily a chicken-and-egg scenario (which came first, the infrastructure or the society) but one does definitely reinforce the other. If theres enough community-mindedness to put effort into creating and maintaining communal spaces, they become places people want to be, the interactions within the community are enhanced, the community values itself, values the spaces, more $$ and more effort is spent on the spaces.....Conversely, either provide nothing or provide something so badly designed or maintained that it's clear the communal interaction ISN'T valued, and you reinforce the cycle in the other direction. I've obviously oversimplified here, but the infrastructure, or lack thereof, does have influence.
@@Fractured_Unity that's a much deeper rabbit hole, but it's also a matter of culture, not just a matter of throwing more money at things. See the various cultural frictions in Europe--a continent famous for a more generous social state compared to say, the U.S./Canada
Naturally, Japan and it's 98% Japanese society that loves order/rules is going to have nice public goods. Finland also has great public toilets(the best in Europe), and I can't imagine why.
Thank you for introducing Japan to me. I love nature, but I was just looking at Japan's beautiful scenery without really thinking about it. Your deep analysis of the architecture was fascinating, and I found myself watching your other videos as well.
6:42 I've been so conditioned by so many RUclips videos over the years, that when I heard that lead up with that tone of voice my brain was fully expecting the end of that sentence to be something like "is possible thanks to... this video's sponsor: Square Space!"
I really didn't realize until now that I apparently pee a lot less frequent than most people lol. I'd say an average of 3-4 times a day, though occasionally more.
I'm at 2-3 usually... This is a carry over from my early school years, I think. I was anorexically thin, hardly drank or ate - had nothing to do with body image. My brother was significantly overweight. He generally got to the easily available snacks and food before I ever could, and my family hardly ever cooked. I was limited to cereal in the morning when I was on time and lunch at school... So sometimes one meal a day.
Let me see.... I drink water frequently throughout the day, but I've never really counted it. One after getting up, twice before sleeping, and at least...hmm, maybe while dumping, maybe while talking a bath, and maybe at least one while in the middle of the day. So .... five to six I guess? Huh. But 12? I think that's too much unless it is cold (like when constant raining) and, not or, AND, chugging a lot of water....or well...having a "weak" bladder as people say.
Elevating simple necessary functions to the heights of luxury is a mark of a healthy civilization that can afford to do more than the bare minimum. It shows strength, pride, and resilience. Then there's what we're doing, which shows a negligence so astonishing it can only mean our civilization is about to fall apart due to weakness, frailty, and degeneracy.
To be fair, the US could do more, but they spend a lot actually defending Korea, Japan, Germany and parts of Europe. It's those German, Japanese, Korean etc freeloaders.
@@peterc4082 They aren't freeloaders. All of those countries had sanctions put on them to limit their military capabilities after their respective wars. Of course the US has to pick up the slack.
@@peterc4082 US military precense is there to protect dollar and fullfil agreements. You stop policing and we stop using dollars. Nothing is free stop crying about it.
@@blinkx1070 Actually that's not really the true. US keeps oversized military because they want to be superpower and be able to influence places all over the world. European countries - especially Germany - used to have large armies after WW2 because there was Soviet Union around the corner. After Soviet Union fell in '93 there was no more danger so they stopped spending on their military almost completely (down from 3-5% GDP to 1-2%). Noone really sanctioned Germany after WW2 since sanctions were among the reasons that WW2 started. They punished Germany too harsly in WW1 and then when issues appeared they eleted leader with strong charizma who promised solving all their issues and a reason to be proud of their country. Turns out that simple solutions usually don't work.
True and "Afford" is not just economic but also cultural. I'm sure US can put all the money they have in this and stil not be able to compete with Japan.
IMO the maintenance is the biggest problem and it's driven by the slacker class who vandalise everything in USA. Ofc maintenance will be more expensive in US anyway (labor costs, regulations etc) but it doesn't have to be 30x times more than in Japan.
Except the $34K bathroom was in Vancouver! The 54 deaths in public bathrooms were in British Columbia (aka Vancouver)! Always looking to blame the US for everything, but other countries have major issues as well. And we still do have Starbucks which effectively serves our nation with clean and safe public bathrooms that are open 14-hours a day.
Vancouver is still north America. Your entire Continent has the same cultural issues. And 14h a day for the Starbucks is really not enough, what if you're out and about at night and need to pee? No wonder most American cities smell even worse than the dirty streets of Paris.
3:15 If anyone wants a more detailed cost breakdown comparing North America and Japan, Life Where I'm From did an excellent video on the topic a few months back called "Why are public toilets in Japan so much cheaper?"
San Francisco Rec n Park can't purchase and install prefabricated toilets due to one of the commission members, Larry Mazolla, holding the city hostage via restricting them from doing business outside of the union which just increases prices way beyond what is reasonable. The Noe Valley restroom was going to total over $1m for construction when prefabricated toilets cost under $5k. Absolutely ridiculous especially when you go over the bridge to Oakland and Lake Merritt has brand new prefabricated toilets that look really nice.
Bad zoning and having to get permission to do too many things is probably the single biggest reason why cities can't get nice things in the U.S. There are other reasons that might be bigger when put together, but if I had to pick just two, those would be it.
as someone who has bladder problems, i have to plan in advance when going out like not drinking anything before leaving so i dont have to pee a billion times in a filthy public restroom. it's awful because it just reduces the quality of my life when i just want to try out a new drink i have to think in advance of where i have to go and either deal with how dirty it is because i have no choice (please dont ever hold your pee even if it's a cesspool just pee because it's really bad to hold ur piss) at this point i might as well just wear diapers
@@ElliotShayle Fortunately, Google maps has gotten better about including public restroom locations in their map data. They also get user feedback about closures and such which can be helpful. If you appreciate the resource, you should be sure to leave feedback for other users. It can also be helpful to plan some of your excursions for after dark when it's easier to find a fairly private seeming dark shadow when you know you're a little too far from your next known restroom.
5:34 - that should tell you a lot. The US *IS* in many regards a developing nation. It lacks behind so many metrics compared to other developed nations. It's really astonishing how little Americans know about the state of their country.
This was such a well done video, from your explanations and editing to the way you eloquently anunciate your words. I'm obsessed with your channel, you've got me hooked on architecture 😅
It makes so much sense. my wife is a frequent toilet breaker and felt very much comfortable in Japan. She could go everywhere. It literally relieves a lot and not only fluids but also potty stress. Its a great experience using the public restrooms. Here in the Netherlands, having to go to the toilet is a privilege. Almost every public toilet has to be paid for. For about 50 cents to a euro you may relieve yourself. And the toilets appear clean but the scent will make you almost faint. If you don’t have money to go then you’re screwed. There are some public spaces such as the airport where you can relieve yourself for free but the toilets smell like you’re entering a space that’s coated with ammonia.
I've lived and worked in China, Dubai, KSA, Lebanon, London (UK) and Nepal - far-flung places, not all at once. And the public toilets in each of these compared to Canada (home) and Japan are, as you've shown - nightmare fuel. The public toilets in China were traumatic. The pit in a shack in Nepal was at least well-ventilated, and few people missed the hole or urinated all over the walls. Dubai was better, but still, despite the glam and glitz, public toilets, unless in a big mall or venue, were to be avoided for all the reasons you can imagine, likewise in Saudi and Beirut. One reason we and these places have trouble with toilets is the concept of consideration of the other - we're a long way from that, and even in the most polite public settings it's our attitudes toward one another and the public spaces we share that make the toilet problem so hard, if not unsolvable. The shift in public conscientiousness, while possible, seems a very long way off in Canada and other places outside of Japan.
I don't know what part of China you lived in. I recently visited six cities in China (no, not Shanghai or Beijing), and to my surprise, I was able to find a public toilet every time within walking distance (5-8 minutes). Most of the public toilets are clean in general, albeit a bit old, but definitely cleaner than the toilets at Starbucks here in the states (SF, LA, NYC).
@@dustinreed1815 i remember one time visitng china i looked in a public bathroom in zhengding after my grandpa finished using it in 2013, i remembered it being large buckets of yellow liquid and the iconic smell of chinese pit toilet bathrooms. my mom told me my face was white when i went back out (altho idk if that was true). when mom visisted again in 2019, it was a lot better. i havent went back since 2018. hopefully most of the toilets in places i went back then have stalls, toilet paper, and can flush. i also appreciate that theyre squat toilets; sanitary, and also is a more proper pooping position, as long as if it was a hybrid. (12m ago, early so i could reply early)
@@dustinreed1815 Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. The malls and shopping areas are more likely to have cleaner toilets - not a guarantee though. Beijing had some of the worst and most foul-smelling public toilets. Not to say they're all like this but I managed to find more than a few. Restaurants were a reasonable bet for a cleaner toilet, but not always. Much depends on luck and location.
Interesting, I've been to China many times for months at a time in many different cities and I never saw a "traumatic" toilet like I do here stateside. I'd say the worst one was at GZ train station during holiday. Just a dirty squat toilet, but that's immensely better than heroin needles littered on the floor and some cases, questionably alive human beings strewn on the floor.
@@2WheelsGood.01 Yep. The upside to the bogs in China - No syringes. Nowhere to wash your hands, and it sucks to be you if you don't bring your own bog roll or wet wipes, but no syringes! If you don't mind the smell. In Nepal, public toilets are an experience as well. Not a good one, but an experience - don't touch anything, and for god's sake don't fall over when you squat! Public toilets in Japan were like heaven...okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but after a long stretch in Nepal or wherever, it definitely was a relief.😆
One alternative standard for public bathrooms that seems to work pretty well, is the "pay as you go" model that is common in Mexico and South America. The restroom use fee is often quite low, but it is apparently enough to pay for staff, which help maintain the facilities and provide some level of security. The restrooms are often fairly easy to find with large signs. They'll often be mixed right in among regular businesses. Everywhere was vastly better than what I would typically expect in an urban location in the US.
Oh no, this host thinks government should run everything including toilets. Notice her digs at private company toilets and joy with a beautiful public toilet. Ugh, another product of failed government schools, so sad to see such ignorance.
Ironically in Singapore, toilets in hawker food centres usually aren't free but are often dirtier than many other free toilets e.g. in shopping centres & hotels, maybe as the former are cleaned less frequently (daily I think) as they operate on smaller budgets, as the food they sell are cheaper
At $34,000 a month, you could easily hire 5 bathroom attendants 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.. Pay them each $4,000 a month and still save $14,000. There I just provided thousands of city jobs and reduce the cost. I was a maintenance manager at a smal mall for a few years and I found the one thing that the homeless and vandals crave the most his privacy. If you eliminate privacy, you eliminate vandalism and abuse of public spaces. I work now as a delivery driver in New York City and I know where there are many public bathrooms that are in reasonable repair. All of them are attached to rec centers in parks and they don't get trashed because there's always people around either working at or using the rec center.
You're just putting a Band-Aid on the infected wound. We should be dealing with the cause of infection. The very same reason why we don't have clean bathrooms is also the reason why children can't walk around alone, why the rest stops in Northern California has no vending machines. Infection spreads and infect other things.
AMAZING VIDEO. You have articulated my thoughts over the past 10 years in a perfect bit sized video. I’ll be sending to many friends and family. I’ve told numerous people as crazy as it sounds I’m moving forever to Japan from Vancouver Canada and the public washrooms thing was the key to my decision. I was set on a path of studying one of the hardest languages on earth for an English speaker and changed my entire life because of this. It seems insane but when you really think about it deeply this public washroom thing explains the entire worldview of Canada vs Japan and everything can be boiled down to this washrooms thing. It explains everything. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use the washroom in downtown and it took nearly 20 mins or more to find a clean suitable one and often I have to beg a store owner to let me use one after searching for blocks and blocks. In Japan sometimes in ONE train station even a small one in a rural area there can be upwards of 6 washrooms just in the station.. One on the platform, one when you climb up the stairs from the platform, one a bit further down the hallway, one after the exit gates, one before the exit gates etc etc Larger stations I can’t even fathom how many probably close to a hundred in Tokyo Station I’m sure. How many in the main terminus station for Vancouver waterfront? Zero.
because you said it companies responsible for mainteance do the bare minimum to maintaine because that cuts into profits and profits are above everything. Its a wide spread problem in north america, if it can turn a profit then its not worth doing
Literally just hire 2 people to takes shifts to look after the toilet. Im sure vandalizing would drastically decrease if there were someone at all times outside the toilet. And of course make those people clean the toilet every couple of hours.
huge coincidence but i recently watched the movie Perfect Days. its a Japanese movie that follows the simple yet interesting life of a Tokyo public toilet cleaner. in this video i see some of the public bathrooms that you've visited found in the movie and i am in awe of how common and how cleanly they are. living on the east side of Canada, i find it rare to see such urban designs for public toilets that are also well maintained. i always love the effort and care that you and your team put into making these videos, keep up the amazing work ♥♥♥
They have a big public toilet facility right in the center of Nashville Indiana and when I visited there I was amazed at how clean it was. It's not all of America, it's the culture of her major cities versus her more rural areas too.
Yep, went to school in Helena Montana and it was night and day compared to my hometown of Portland Oregon. Lots of homeless people use the library bathroom in Helena but I never saw it trashed. They don’t tolerate anti-social behavior there, just like Japan (I lived in Japan for three years as well). We’re gaslit in the west to think that these problems are “part and parcel of living in a big city”, they aren’t. They’re a product of tolerating anti-social behavior and for some reason the urban centers of the west have concluded that we have to throw our hands up in defeat when confronted with antisocial behavior, especially from drug addicts.
My name is Flushmaster and I approve this message. Seriously, don't be @$$holes about public restroom facilities. Everybody uses them, including yourself. Leave them in a condition you would want to come back to.
And one thing too is that people in Japan are taught a collective responsibility. I'm not a huge fan of a lot of East Asian schooling, but I will say I love Japanese kindergartens they're absolutely wonderful. From the time that children are in kindergarten, they are taught to be socially collectively responsible for cleaning. * Yes, Western schools do it to a certain point or at least they used to like. For instance, I remember when we had chalkboards and we would clean the chalkboard or we would help with cleaning the desk but that was only probably a few times a year. And I'm by no means saying this replaces the custodial for they deal with more intense cleaning products. But it should be that we teach from a young age that everybody has a responsibility. Another thing is lot of the time I've observed that people complain about handicap bathrooms, but in my mind all bathrooms should be accessible rather than condemning people who don't appear to be disabled. Toilets should be made for people, It's a basic human right, people should feel comfortable to go to the go to the toilet. As a person who's had a pretty Public bathroom phobia. I for years would not go into a public bathroom. This leads to health problems. Especially as a female.
I think it boils down to the Japanese culture, it is well ingrained in their youth that they have to clean up after themselves, whereas in North America, we kind of expect someone to get paid to clean up after us.
The problem is that they are taking care of the toilets while ignoring the people. Until you fix the people, you won't have pleasant cities. You need to keep people housed, employed, fed, and cared for in terms of mental and medical health. Do that, and the cities fix themselves.
Just discovered your channel, it is amazing. I really like the work that you do. It's like a combination between architecture and history, it's awesome!
Massive coincidence, I just started tracking how many times I go #1, because I'm going camping outdoors for a week soon. I counted SIX times and I thought that was a lot. 12 times a day? omg
As always Dami, the care given to the issues raised in this video is very needed and appreciated. Examining how we treat ourselves, each other and our environment - is reflected in places such as public toilets. We all want better spaces - but do we want them enough to invest our attention into what it means to make the necessary changes? Thank you for asking these questions and making a space for us to discuss our answers and to bring to the fore front of our minds how much power we have to improve such situations. It’s not just a toilet. It’s a real reflection of URBAN life and what it means to function as a member of an urban community.
In the area where I live even privately owned public toilets - in places like restaraunts or fast-food joints - are quite repulsive and unsanitary, even though they have people cleaning them several times a day. I wouldn't let anything but my home toilet to touch my butt in basically all but the most direst situations. I think this is also a part of why public toilets are horrible, because people _think_ that they _should_ be horrible. It goes so far that I basically obtained a sort of a phobia of public toilets. I will be unwilling to enter one even if it appears clean, because of my conviction that it really isn't.
I stopped cleaning the bathrooms at my job because people are so awful. We also have a janitor who doesn't want to do their job half the time, but the public are disgusting and have no shame.
I so love that you included a clip from the relatively recent South Park episode. That’s really how I heard about the superior toilets. I think toilets are a basic human right and I am alarmed that typically I only pee 3 times a day.
I'm confused why if it costs 400k a year to self maintain these toilets, could we not just hire a person who's job is to look after that ONE specific toilet space and just clean it every week?
@@tengille I mean would it really be outside the 400k a year budget to clean daily? I feel like we could still have weekends off. average salary in the US is like what 60k a year?
Yes how the fuck cost 400k is Dr. Shaibonki cleaning the mf toilet rim with surgical wipes or what? Cmon 100k tops a year and that could cover a cluster of them
As a New York City resident, I would be happy if our 1940s/50s/60s era public bathrooms could be open and relatively clean and safe. We don’t need works 17:01 of art or existential experiences. We need a place to do number 1 and number 2. I have traveled in Europe and there and at least in the tourist areas there were always public restrooms available. Nothing fancy and sometimes up/down stairs but they are there unlike NYC.
The day that sub to be able to use the throne is needed, money minded people are going to jack rates just to line thier pockets.... at least here in the us anyway.
I have some progress here. I pasted a screenshot to ChatGPT, and it gives the answer: The tool you saw in the image appears to be Miro, a popular online whiteboard platform that allows users to organize and collaborate visually on a digital canvas. I am exploring how to use it now. I do not know how it make image searchable and be highlighted. Maybe it is not Miro she is using?
Because of the pervasive childish narcissistic antisocial cultures we've created. It's not about race, it's about culture. When certain cultures raise their kids to believe that they're already a victim, so take what you can get away with, you get what we see in major cities: high petty theft and vandalism. And when those same cultures glorify violence, mysogeny, and vulgarity, you get what you see. The inability to be civil and respectful to others, it's all about THEM and THEIR needs and feelings and ^%#$^ everyone else.
12:38 That $150,000 price tag is still insane. That breaks down to $5,000 for the metal box, and then $145,000 for a bunch of parasitic middlemen to embezzle from tax money.
Wonderful piece. Well done and comprehensive. An issue for me most of my life. I was just in Japan a few weeks ago and was happy to see clean public toilets everywhere. Even in Kyoto along the river, there was a clean public toilet that I very much appreciated. Great work. David
I think it has to do with the level of society and what kind of people there are in a country! Public toilets don't work in my country either, so much so that they just removed all public toilets. The people are freggin animals around here! I think there must be new public toilets in underground parking now but I am not sure since I haven't been there yet.
I have family in the US and Japan, I have lived in both, and it's obvious to anyone with eyes what is actually different between Japan and the West. Public toilets work in Japan because it's a mono-cultural, homogeneous society that mostly agrees on basic civilized attitudes like respecting public and private property. People rarely vandalize because there is a sense of shame associated with it. In most of the West, outside of maybe some Scandinavian countries where you find similar monocultures, there's no universally cultivated respect of others or their property. In fact, people who encourage vandalism or destruction are often praised or protected by the media.
It doesn't have to be perfectly homogenous but you need a healthy amount of patriotism and nationalism. If I don't love my country and my people why would I give a fuck about anything that's not my own?
This is why I disliked the video. She's too much of a coward to talk about the real reason this happens. Japan also has an insanely high conviction rate, so it's not all sunshine and roses over there.
@@robrick9361 you're halfway there. Soon you will realise that high conviction rate is good and is among the reason they have more civilised population. Some people can only be reasoned by fear/violence
@@alexmin4752 Human error alone means that Japan has far more innocent people in prison than any other country. Now I don't like what's happening in the west in places like New York but there has to be a way to achieve a more reasonable balance then these two extremes.
I don't think it's nationalism or patriotism or multiculturalism that's the issue. It's civility. If you can't respect a person that isn't related to you, you won't respect a facility that's built also for people you don't know (rather unfortunate, since it's also built for you).
I've always hated using public bathrooms ever since i was a kid due to the sanitation conditions and learned to hold my urges in until we got to a place i deemed "safe" enough to let it out. People need to get rid of the mentality of "if its not mine, I don't need to take care of it", as it makes all places less accessible because of selfishness and discourages culture of connection.
Excellent analysis of what is a indicator of our societies. I live in France, and most public toilets have disappeared, and I wondered why. Your analysis brings some explanations, even if there's a cultural dimension that's important. Our society has become self-centered and many people don't respect public facilities. Your conclusion to go private while including other services seems good. Thank you for this ! What software do you use to centralize your research papers ?
I understand you're trying to keep this upbeat but I think you missed part of the problem in North America. I'm a janitor and I assure you not all the problems with public restrooms are from the homeless, that has just exacerbated the problem. People are if not self-centered, at least not thinking about others when they use any public facilities. Throwing trash on the floor and minor and major vandalism are common even in commercial restrooms. There is a systemic cultural bias towards selfish thinking. Any public area is someone else's problem to take care. Put as many public restrooms up as you want and someone will scrawl on the walls, throw trash on the floors, and not flush the toilets leading to a decline in the restroom and increasing upkeep. They'll look you in the eye when they do it as well, daring you to say anything, I have it happen on a regular basis. I wish we had places like you describe in Japan but I don't believe it's possible in our culture.
Yes, personal freedom is supposed to go with personal responsibility but too many Americans did not bother to read the memo.
🙌🙌🙌
This is correct. Not caring for the commons is a horrible mistake that Americans seem to be completely unaware of for the most part.
I wish I could pin your comment. I was thinking through the video that this issue has its roots in collectivist vs individualistic frames of thinking in society. I think all cultures have problems, but it would be nice to crank up the empathy for others when it comes to individuals.
You do seriously valuable work, and not enough people see it that way. Thank you, sincerely.
Someone give this man a seat at the local council. Great insight
The Japanese culture of taking care of things perhaps plays an important role why public spaces are clean.
Because they possess a mindset to be considerate about other people's feelings it is what a COMMUNITY is supposed to be.
They recently made a Japanese movie called "Perfect Days" and it's about a Japanese public toilet cleaning dude just enjoying his days chilling and doing his job and it was slightly repetitive but honestly therapeutic... would recommend checking it out
Everywhere but Osaka though lmao
@@Stormtrooper--dx1xj taught as early as kindergarten
@@ashishbarthwal6961 3:25
In Japan real estate developers are also sometimes required by zoning laws to build public toilets in certain areas
This could be a major understated factor
Can I just say how much I appreciate that you enunciate your words? 😍 as someone who is hard of hearing I click away so fast while trying to listen to someone who frequently slurs their words/mumbles and/or changes their volume in a sentence (like when someone says something quietly to themselves on camera). You’re the best. Thank you! 🙏🏻
There is also the fact that schools in Japan do not have janitors, the students actually have to clean the school themselves, so if they trash it then they have to clean it. It's something that is taught from kindergarten, so it is ingrained in the culture. Which is why if someone litters in Japan, like even tossing cigarette butts, the general reaction from everyone around even if they don't say it is, "Gross! Do you not realize someone else has to clean your mess?! Are you really that childish, irresponsible, or just some type of sociopath?!"
Schools should do the same in the USA. But I can see entitled parents causing issues. Sad.
@@ZombieJitsu It's not entirely without issues though, like a teacher has to be still present at school, which they usually are since they're doing paperwork. In some cases it is also used as part of detention or having stay back at school because of poor behavior or performance. However, generally there is a roster system, but say for example you have sports or extracurricular activities on a day that you are rostered, then you would have to negotiate with someone else to trade days, and so in that sense it teaches social skills. There are issues with bullying to some extent as well, such as if someone who is a bully pressuring another kid to do it instead or people being jerks and slacking off so the people that are actually doing it can't go home until it's done and it's more work.
@@tats8666 even with all that, I still think it should be adopted and applied here in the states. I believe it will also help with discipline. But I understand nothing comes with its own problems. As what they say the proof is in the pudding; look at the society in Japan compared to the states.
@@ZombieJitsu I'm not going to get into a debate regarding which society is better (I haven't lived in the states or Canada), because I believe we can both at least agree on the fact that there are positives and negatives of either one or the other which are different in some ways or may be similar in others, and that is a matter of perspective or perception and also personal preferences or biases. Yes it is good for discipline and teaching children that it's important to contribute to your surroundings, environment, people around you, and society as a whole, which is part of the point of schools. Some people argue that it's taken to an extreme, but asides from toilets, the Japanese are famous for having lots of vending machines and yet somehow everywhere is clean, so the benefit of having the convenience of vending machines maybe every couple of hundred meters could be viewed as coming at a cost to people having to work harder to be more clean and respectful and so that convenience exists or because people work hard and are clean and respectful so the convenience exists, and either way the people who live in Japan want to live in a society that is clean, convenient, and respectful of others.
@@ZombieJitsu True, that's why I think the better solution would be the one where there're still janitors formally working on that. But their job burden obligatedly have to be eased by students based on roster decided by both the school and classes altogether. These janitors also act as supervisor in enforcing all those agreed turns by student in doing these cleaning duties, so no one could easily make run away from doing them through bullying. Of course it's not a bulletproof thing, but still better than each end of spectum here.
It isn't just that North America has a homeless problem. It is cultural. The Japan had a homeless problem spike about 15 years not as bad as what is happening in the US or Canada but big here. Osaka Castle Park had a large tent city. The homeless on their own set up a neighborhood association. Set out the tent spaces. They organized government garbage pick up. Policed themselves to a large extent. Helped residents with mental problems etc. The public toilets in the park could still be used by park visitors and tourists no problem. There was a shanty built by a couple under a bridge next to the river in the center of Kyoto. They lived there for 3 years. They took up half of the bike/walking lane. There was never any garbage or dirtiness. They had a sign on the building apologizing for being an annoyance.
Peak od japan homlessness was 25k while california have 150 RN. Helping people with mental problem problems is nice way of saying throw them in closed mental asylum. Japan have like 25 times more psychiatric beds then USA per capita.
@@insolencePL are you saying mental care is a bad thing? in 2023 over 181k people spend the night homeless in California, and around 650k across the us. i do wonder what your point is? helping people with mental issues doesn't inherently mean throw them in an asylum does it? having more beds available for people in need is not a bad thing, helping them get back on their feet. there are obviously examples of certain mental hospitals not being very helpful (especially in the past), however it is the intention to help those people move on with their lives at some point. i'd argue that in america there is a huge lobby intent on keeping mental care unavailable in order to feed other markets, like the prison system or pharmacies.
@@mouse2542 My point was that involuntary asylum is a major way in which Japan is taking care of it's homless that are mentally ill which often refuse help. I am in fact in favor of expanding network of those asylums. Calling it help from community while it being in fact state run network of prisons with psychiatric help build in is missing the point.
It is a homeless problem, but it's also an imported problem. Before the flood gates of immigration, bathrooms were much cleaner. Before the floodgates of welfare that created entitled classes, the bathrooms were much cleaner. Just look at all the diseases in America today that were eradicated. You don't get a rise in eradicated diseases from local populations. You get it by importing it. The US was transport/sewage/public systems were designed largely for about 200 million people. We've since added over 140 million from outside of the country. That means over twice as much wear and tear, because increases aren't proportional. You put twice as many cars on a road and you don't just get twice the rate needed to repair roads, you get 5 and 10 times the rate needed.
The only difference is the problem has become soo big that they simply stopped most of the upkeep and repair. Look at roads and sidewalks in many cities, they haven't been replaced or even repaired in more than 50 years, or they're continually repaired just to keep them functioning. The same happens with things like sewer systems. When you're flushing 350 million poops down systems designed for only 200 million, it might work for a while, but eventually something gives and the overall lifespan of the constructions are reduced. At the same time, these imported people and entitled welfare classes have become such a burden on the country that they take far more than they give back, which results in the ones that do actually provide the money and labor, getting even less than ever for their money and efforts, which results in a systemwide reduction in the standard of living for everyone, including the leeches.
The US is over 40 trillion in debt. People need to wake up and realize that means the bank account is not only empty, it's over drafted. We're not even running on fumes anymore.
@@insolencePL there is a diffrence with locking up someone under the guise of mental health and actualy treating them. if its good medical help one woukd think they would seek it out willingly.
You should look into Singapore. The founder of Singapore actually made it a cornerstone of building Singapore to have clean toilets everywhere. Having unclean toilets will actually shut down your business here.
Xi in China also made it a priority to build public bathrooms. These days I walk down some rundown village community or some alley and there's a clean well-lit toilet with flush toilets and white tiles. The norm in 2010 was a trough that you shit into without doors.
@@hufficag
And you failed to mention the many others sham that were just built for xinnie pooh eyeballs but actually useless and not connected to any sewage.
What is the difference in drug acceptance between countries like Japan and Singapore compared countries like the USA?
@@randomyoutubebrowser5217there it is! You're asking the real questions. Drug addicts don't take care of their own bodies, so why would they take care of public spaces?
@@Mendrawza24 Oh look, a comment complaining about this in Canada as well. Wonder if there is a link.
My intuition tells me that the reason is that our culture is more interested in money/power and individualism, those two things combine mean "Why waste money on a communal wellbeing if it will not net me any immediate tangible gain?".
In the superindividualistic region of Flanders 'Toiletmadam' (f/m) is one of the better earning jobs you can do without a college degree. There it is a tradition to pay to go to public toilets, that are constructed by public-like services (like railwaystations, concert venues and shopping centers) but ran and maintained by a private person. Which works, but, ...
They did not have these functions to provide for homeless people, as being homeless, due to the historically extensive social services, is perceived by many as a choice and a crime (only a few decades ago, anyone on the street with less than enough coin to buy a loaf of bread in their pockets would be arrested for vagrancy and sent to live in a gated community, and kids would be stopped by their parents before they left the house to make sure they had a handkerdhief and the equivalent of a dollar on them, at the risk of being picked up by the Imperial Guard or 'Rijkswacht' never to be seen again). Nowadays though it seems being homeless is the norm and the police is your friend and people living on the street commit crimes hoping to be arrested so they get a meal and a roof, but the friendly police refuse to arrest them because the prisons are full.
It starts at school, where children are deprived of almost any sense of collective action and are all conditioned to individualism through elbow mentality and consumerism.
If you then become homeless and feel completely excluded from that society, you also lose any sense of community and therefore respect for things that are provided collectively.
LOL😂 Japan is not exactly a poor country. Money has nothing to do with it.
@@danieljung2810 And Individualism, two things combined, not money as a sole factor. I've seen that Japanese culture has a huge focus on not standing out as an individual.
The same people with this mentality will also be the first to turn their noses up, sneer, and/or complain about dirty public spaces that they routinely have to pass through daily.
The mental gymnastics required for that level of cognitive disconnect must be painful.
In Germany, toilets in public places usually have attendants.
Frequently, retirees work there to supplement their pensions (I think...).
They sit in secure booths behind thick glass and keep an eye on the place.
Suspicious behavior results in a quick call to building security; they keep everything stocked up; and when nobody is around, they clean the place.
They always have a tip jar, and people frequently drop in a one or two euro coin.
Seems to work pretty well.
Where do the homeless Romi go? In Stockholm there are city nature reserves that a polluted with human feces?
The problem in Germany and Europe in general is that you must pay to use most public toilets, which are not particularly well-maintained in spite of that
And let's not forget about the gross open air on the sidewalk urinals in Frankfurt 🤢
@Tangoman82 I think the level of maintenance depends on the location. I'm from London and I've seen public toilets in all states. I've seen free ones in good condition and paid ones in terrible condition and vice versa. Pretty much the same thing in European cities visited, with surprisingly Zurich being the most average, but having to pay 2-3 Francs to use it.
Tbh though, when it comes to cleanliness, I've been to festivals and toilets there are horrible and pub toilets are always mess, so I'll happily take "minimally acceptable" cleanliness for a quid in a train station just for the convenience of a public toilet. I never poop in them if I can help it, so I rarely spend more than a minute or two inside
also in Germany, you have to pay to use the toilet. so no, let's not compare two dissimilar things.
In Switzerland we're probably kinda in the middle.
What always bothers me in the US is that there are never any toilet brushes available to clean after yourself if needed. I was raised to check the toilet after I flush it and clean it if there's a trace. I do that no matter if I'm at my home, at a friend's, at work, at a hotel or in a public restroom. And in Switzerland, there is alwas a brush available right next to the toilet. But for some reason, it's not the case in the US.
TMI: I remember how horrified I was when I was in the US in a hotel with my partner for the first time, and I could not clean the streak I had left in the toilet.
Same like in Mozambique. I have been in many hotels around the world and in some high end ones. Many didn't have a brush neither. I don't want anybody else cleaning my traces and I don't want to look at them more than once.
Had this exact same issue in a Premier Inn toilet in London recently
In Germany people pay extra to not have brushes. Add cameras in public toilets and Republicans in the US will fund hundreds of thousands of them around the country - secretly.
I'd like to see a study on how lack of public toilets in north america has contributed to people not leaving their house as much.
You can only go to the bathroom if you're near a store, and then only during store hours. People plan their trips based on being able to use the bathroom. At some point people give up and only visit known "safe" areas that will have a bathroom.
Yep. American culture can't be assed to think of anyone but itself, and considers public service a waste of resources on people other than themselves. A philosophy adhered to even to their own detriment. So you have to convince Americans to accidentally care about the public through purely self-interested motivations. Here, watch this:
X -- You must provide an open space with adequate amenities to encourage the joy of existing in public life...
Yes -- You must make existing in public comfortable so that PEOPLE SPEND MORE MONEY THERE.
Only when those dots connect do Americans take action on any subject.
Wow I live in the third largest metropolis in America and I've never heard people manage their movements based on proximity to bathrooms.... You may not have heard of this thing called traffic which is much more likely to curb behavior
i completely agree. i visited new york and i was honestly shocked at the lack of public toilets. pretty much everywhere i went, the only toilets available were for businesses and they only allowed staff to use the restroom. sometimes, they would allow paying customers to use the restroom and i would have to buy some shit i didn't want or need and was quite overpriced just so i could pee. weirdly enough, i ended up at the met several times to use the toilets because their pay what you want fee ended up being cheaper than all the other options available to me. i tried using the public toilets in central park a couple of times but they were so disgusting they were just unusable. i'm talking pee on the floor (i'm a woman) and clogged toilets and no soap and nothing to clean the pee ridden seats and no toilet paper. people had started throwing their period products on the floor because the trash was overflowing.
the shocking thing is, pay-to-use restrooms are not even an option. i'm indian and i've travelled quite a bit and usually countries that don't really have public toilets tend to have toilets you have to pay a small feel to use, which they use to keep up maintenance. in india this was usually around 5 rupees and in a couple of european countries it was about 50 cents. this isn't ideal of course since normal bodily functions shouldn't cost you extra and this puts unnecessary strain on low income folks, but it was still an option. the us should at least try this model so that at least some form of usable public toilet is available.
@@pavelow235 then you're lucky enough to never have this as an issue. some of us need to use the restroom at shorter intervals and once we learn that they aren't going to be readily available we have to start taking proximity to restrooms into account in our every day lives. i'm a woman and whenever i'm on my period i need to use the restroom every 2ish hours, and because i need to do more than just pee i need a clean restroom to use with stuff like soap and tp available. this has genuinely stopped me from going out on some days in big metropolitan cities in the us because of low public restroom availability. or i go out and then immediately turn around and go back to the hotel or friend's place i was staying at because i can actually use the restroom there. some people just cant hold their pee very long (children, elderly, pregnant women, people with bladder issues) and so need to be reasonably close to a public restroom all the time. this is not an issue for civilized countries. i grew up in thailand and i never had to worry about when or where i would be able to find a public restroom even in relatively rural areas because there were always clean public restrooms stocked with soap and tp and had working bidets.
@@ishathakor Just a tip for future visits, department stores often have some of the nicest bathroom in NYC. Macy's and Bloomingdale's are always very clean. Stay away from parks unless you're desperate.
I live in Vancouver. We cannot maintain clean, quality public washrooms for the same reasons we cannot leave our bicycles unlocked and our windows unbarred. Our society and value system is simply just not built up the concepts of respect for the greater good and community importance. Everything here needs vandalism/theft mitigation and overwhelmingly expensive maintenance and repairs. It's disheartening.
They follow Aynd Rand's rules of capitalism: selfishness.
Vote more left, I guess. Surely will help.👌
it used to be wasnt that long ago you could leave your bike without fear of it getting stolen in the USA, it all started to chnage in the early 70's after all them raceriots
@@blakespower in Denmark, we can leave our bike without fear of it being stolen : the country has had a Social-Democrats government for decades, pro-progress , pro-sciences, the Conservatives are non-existent, there's no Trump in sight, and it's the most civilised country in the world ....
@@blakespower in Denmark, we can leave our bike without fear of it getting stolen : the country is ruled by Social-Democrats for decades, pro-progress , pro-sciences, the Conservatives are non-existent, there's no T in sight, and it's the most civilised country in the world ....
In 2022 we can read in the article: Germany's capital Berlin is the European city with the worst public toilets, with a cleanliness score of just 0.16/5, and almost one in ten (9.58%) of its reviews including words synonymous with "dirty". London is also among the cities with the dirtiest toilets, with a score of just 0.32/5. The best 4.85/5 Finland's capital city Helsinki👍
Well... We need to consider what's the population of Berlin and London, compared to Helsinki, though this does NOT play as an excuse. Also, I guess the variety of "social levels" (can I call them like that, without being discriminative? I hope so..) between all the people of the first two, compared to what I assume is a more "levelled" population of the Finnish capital, makes it harder to educate the same percentage of people, in order to not need to spend billions on "simple maintenance of public toilets". In other words: the average overall education in Helsinki I'm pretty sure is way higher than Berlin and London. But we still love those cities anyway, don't we? We'll just go for a coffee or something, or is it "too much italian"? 😅
Mind that most bars and restaurants in Germany let you use their restrooms if you just ask.
There also might be a law that forces them to allow you to do so, but I'm not sure about it. Though it would fit with article one of the German constitution about dignity being protected. It would also help avoiding a fine for doing your business publicly. I.e. there is no need for it.
In any case, asking politely never hurts and got me directed to the restroom in the few emergencies I had in this regard.
Quelle surprise, the more capitalist nations suck to live in. Who could have possibly guessed that
Interestingly enough, Helsinki also has a distinctly high number of public saunas per capita; there's a few similarities to a public bathing culture there.
Yes, because in Berlin public toilets are just bum nests. And police are doing nothing because of leftist government, which allows people any crimes if they can't pay a fine.
I was at a Target near Disneyland yesterday, and I saw a Japanese tourist loaded his groceries into an Uber and then pushed the cart back into carts corral inside the store before getting into his Uber. At the same time I saw other people just left their carts at the parking space right next to their cars and drive off instead of pushing it to the carts corral nearby. We can’t have nice things in America because we got too many individual who only care about themselves and nobody else.
The hinges on a public door are on the outside so that when a person dies or faints on the toilet you can get the door off to help or remove them. People fall forward blocking the door.
This somehow only makes my "dying on the toilet like elvis" phobia even worse????
@cheekybeannn Id be more worried about a power outagemaking the glass translucent whilst you are using the amenities.
Dont worry power is needed to make the glass clear not the other way around.
"Perfect Days" by Wim Wenders shows the transparent/opaque toilets embedded in a beautiful story. This film is really about clean toilets! 😄
I was a bit 'shocked' at the janitor being willing to wipe the parts of the toilet bowls & urinals directly with his gloved hands; I thought a brush on a stick with tongs would've been used instead
It's opposite world. The more people you have living on the streets, the more public restrooms you need to make available.
You can't just refuse people housing and toilets and then arrest them and put them on the pervert list, coz they had to go piss in the bushes.
sadly the world isnt' going to get better but worse. it's a spiral effect. Rich want more, raise prices, everything costs more, people can't afford it, use credit card, end up on the streets and sick from the fast food they ate all their lives.
@@doggytheanarchist7876 so... they trick to treat humans inhumane is to dehumanize them. When you learn to see this trick you will see it everywhere. Homeless, migrant, drug users etc.
Why try to solve the problem when you can solve the symptoms. Benches you cannot sleep on toilets where you can't find your vanes etc.
@@MrFernanrc oh the stupidity.
@@MrFernanrc well that's very doomer of you.
The world gets better and worse in Waves. Some things improve and some are ruined.
But. If we work together and eat the rich I'm sure it'll be a whole lot better soon.
@@MrFernanrc join a union, instead of giving up.
I worked as a semi-truck driver, and in Europe, there are some great that automaticly wash themselves and get desinfected..The all floor erases against wall to wash..
I remember visiting Paris where they had automatically self cleaning toilets.
It's 90% a culture issue.
I was thinking the same.
100% the answer
no, it's not
@@SuperMegaBober Then what is it?
@@robertwoodpa6463 amount of resources coming into public sector
Your channel is fantastic - the different topics you talk about never cease to amaze me.
Thank you to speak about urbanism, hygiene, health and wealth issue and public facility
Just got back from Japan last week (with two young children in tow) and was amazed by Japanese infrastructure, transportation and PUBLIC TOILETS!
I suspect that at chambers of commerce meetings in US cities, you'll hear opposition to public restrooms as facilitating congregation of unhoused people. In our cities, the loudest voices in local government view penalty and deterrence as the only solution to social problems.
You have to move into a store much more often.
I saw Perfect Days (the movie referenced in this episode) and I was like, damn, what are we doing wrong?
It's a wonderful movie, highly recommended!
a lot
Beautiful movie
Lack of respect in North America, that's what. Most likely won't see the proper change until another lifetime
Everything.
I usually skip sponsors, but this one seemed like genuinely a good thing. I want to learn more about the world so I gave it a download and wasn't disappointed. Great video as always. God Bless you
Wow, this is one of the best, most inciteful piece on RUclips I've ever encountered. Thank you
This is a little gem of a video! A topic not often addressed. I remember that years ago, when Queen Elizabeth was on official visits to America, she was complaining of the lack of public toilets. When you showed the stats, it strongly confirmed this impression.
I read somewhere that the Japanese sees the toilet space as something sacred and essential. It's a place where they can unwind after a long day and just be alone. That is why even though houses in Japan, especially in Tokyo, despite being notoriously confided, will somehow always fit in a proper toilet and an actual bathtub!
And some toilets have a sound system so that you can't hear the pooping adding to privacy
You can even buy just the sound thing if your toilet doesn't have it.
Our toilet played classical music but we thought it was annoying so we switched it off
i live in Japan and its crazy how much time they spend in public toilets
I think it's more to do with the fact that other countries have resorted to gouging their citizens, rather than treating them as the lifeblood of the country, many governments and businesses in other countries are merely there to extract as much as possible out of each person. And its been going on for so long that even the quality isn't there anymore, because since everyone is doing it, there's nowhere else to turn. So you end up with a massive decline in quality of life from things that used to be common place, becoming practically out of reach for most people. After all, why try harder if less will do? So you end up with these cheaply built things like bathrooms. In the 90's, most home bathrooms were pretty nice. Nowadays they're pretty barebones, with linoleum tile rather than actual ceramic tile, the cheapest bargain bin toilets, and a plastic tub, which used to also be ceramic and steel. Heck, most showers landlords put into homes these days are those single piece plastic ones, and they generally also come pretty thin material wise, enough that they can easily be flexed by hand. And people are paying 4 times for all that than they used to for bathrooms built much nicer and of much better materials. The problem goes way beyond bathrooms though, which only amplifies just how pervasive it is.
I live in NJ, like 30 minutes from NYC. All my friends think I hate going to the city because it's loud or because I don't like public transportation.
No.
The main reason why I hate going to NYC is the pee anxiety I get. I hate it. Let me piss in the comfort of NJ thank you very much.
Well the new toilets in Grand Central in the LIRR hall are actually excellent. Not sure if it will last, but so far always clean and extremely well maintained. In the old Grand Central terminal, it's a different story...
My dad would call pee anxiety ‘shy kidney’
This is the most important video in your channel that needs to be shared.
Thank you!
Thank you for starting this kind of discussion! And I love how you bring you approach these problems with curiosity rather than an all-knowing attitude. I'd love to see more of this kind of content on RUclips!
1:57 first toilet must've been hell
Yep! That moment when you open the door and go “aw hell nah!” 😂😂😂
Good spot, I wonder if this was scripted 😂
That was peak comedy
I missed that lmao. Thank you for tagging that
Yes and right as she said "we're designing them to be unpleasant as possible " lmao perfect timing
I used to have a stall at the Crossroads flea market in Calgary, back when the Crossroads flea market was actually in the Crossroads building. I miss it so much. there was a community there among the vendors that malls just don't have. It's the closest thing I can think of that we have here to the market clusters like they have in Japan.
"Do we think that access to a decent public toilet is a human right?"
See, I don't think it's the infrastructure that's a problem. Yes, there can be more of it--however, it's the PEOPLE that are different. In Japan, the people believe in keeping the community safe, clean, pristine, etc. Granted, Japan's population isn't perfect, but in terms of why Japan has better communal spaces? Because Japan has better *communities*.
The infrastructure can stand to be improved, yes. But the difference in people is night and day--something that's a stubborn fact that some do not like to acknowledge.
So maybe it’s also a human right to provide better access to childcare, and education then? Maybe people, when invested in by their society as heavily as they are in Japan, aren’t as bad as you make it seem. Maybe our current systems produce these ‘worse people’ you hate.
I think there's an interplay between the infrastructure and the society in both cases. It's not necessarily a chicken-and-egg scenario (which came first, the infrastructure or the society) but one does definitely reinforce the other. If theres enough community-mindedness to put effort into creating and maintaining communal spaces, they become places people want to be, the interactions within the community are enhanced, the community values itself, values the spaces, more $$ and more effort is spent on the spaces.....Conversely, either provide nothing or provide something so badly designed or maintained that it's clear the communal interaction ISN'T valued, and you reinforce the cycle in the other direction. I've obviously oversimplified here, but the infrastructure, or lack thereof, does have influence.
@@Fractured_Unity that's a much deeper rabbit hole, but it's also a matter of culture, not just a matter of throwing more money at things. See the various cultural frictions in Europe--a continent famous for a more generous social state compared to say, the U.S./Canada
the truth is horbidden
Naturally, Japan and it's 98% Japanese society that loves order/rules is going to have nice public goods. Finland also has great public toilets(the best in Europe), and I can't imagine why.
Thank you for introducing Japan to me. I love nature, but I was just looking at Japan's beautiful scenery without really thinking about it. Your deep analysis of the architecture was fascinating, and I found myself watching your other videos as well.
6:42 I've been so conditioned by so many RUclips videos over the years, that when I heard that lead up with that tone of voice my brain was fully expecting the end of that sentence to be something like "is possible thanks to... this video's sponsor: Square Space!"
Watching this on the loo is unmatched.
Very skibidi of you
F
I really didn't realize until now that I apparently pee a lot less frequent than most people lol. I'd say an average of 3-4 times a day, though occasionally more.
same, prefer that, don't want anymore
I'm at 2-3 usually... This is a carry over from my early school years, I think. I was anorexically thin, hardly drank or ate - had nothing to do with body image. My brother was significantly overweight. He generally got to the easily available snacks and food before I ever could, and my family hardly ever cooked. I was limited to cereal in the morning when I was on time and lunch at school... So sometimes one meal a day.
Caffeinated drinks double that, typically
Let me see.... I drink water frequently throughout the day, but I've never really counted it.
One after getting up, twice before sleeping, and at least...hmm, maybe while dumping, maybe while talking a bath, and maybe at least one while in the middle of the day.
So .... five to six I guess? Huh.
But 12? I think that's too much unless it is cold (like when constant raining) and, not or, AND, chugging a lot of water....or well...having a "weak" bladder as people say.
Usually twice a day. Whenever drinking lots then it could get to six. But to get to a dozen times, are you eating asparagus all day?
Elevating simple necessary functions to the heights of luxury is a mark of a healthy civilization that can afford to do more than the bare minimum. It shows strength, pride, and resilience. Then there's what we're doing, which shows a negligence so astonishing it can only mean our civilization is about to fall apart due to weakness, frailty, and degeneracy.
To be fair, the US could do more, but they spend a lot actually defending Korea, Japan, Germany and parts of Europe. It's those German, Japanese, Korean etc freeloaders.
@@peterc4082 They aren't freeloaders. All of those countries had sanctions put on them to limit their military capabilities after their respective wars. Of course the US has to pick up the slack.
@@peterc4082 US military precense is there to protect dollar and fullfil agreements. You stop policing and we stop using dollars. Nothing is free stop crying about it.
@@blinkx1070 Actually that's not really the true. US keeps oversized military because they want to be superpower and be able to influence places all over the world. European countries - especially Germany - used to have large armies after WW2 because there was Soviet Union around the corner. After Soviet Union fell in '93 there was no more danger so they stopped spending on their military almost completely (down from 3-5% GDP to 1-2%).
Noone really sanctioned Germany after WW2 since sanctions were among the reasons that WW2 started. They punished Germany too harsly in WW1 and then when issues appeared they eleted leader with strong charizma who promised solving all their issues and a reason to be proud of their country. Turns out that simple solutions usually don't work.
True and "Afford" is not just economic but also cultural. I'm sure US can put all the money they have in this and stil not be able to compete with Japan.
You make every topic sound captivating, never thought of toilets this way.
Listening to and watching these very thoughtful and intelligent talks is wonderful! Thank you 🙏. Please keep on with your wide ranging discussions
All the spots from Perfect Days, but with an informative production 😮 beautiful !
Yup. If theres a way to make it less efficient and more expensive, the American owner class will find and exploit it.
IMO the maintenance is the biggest problem and it's driven by the slacker class who vandalise everything in USA. Ofc maintenance will be more expensive in US anyway (labor costs, regulations etc) but it doesn't have to be 30x times more than in Japan.
Except the $34K bathroom was in Vancouver! The 54 deaths in public bathrooms were in British Columbia (aka Vancouver)! Always looking to blame the US for everything, but other countries have major issues as well. And we still do have Starbucks which effectively serves our nation with clean and safe public bathrooms that are open 14-hours a day.
if there's a way to increase profit margins
@@GodLovesComics don't you have to consume something to use the bathroom?
Vancouver is still north America. Your entire Continent has the same cultural issues. And 14h a day for the Starbucks is really not enough, what if you're out and about at night and need to pee? No wonder most American cities smell even worse than the dirty streets of Paris.
3:15 If anyone wants a more detailed cost breakdown comparing North America and Japan, Life Where I'm From did an excellent video on the topic a few months back called "Why are public toilets in Japan so much cheaper?"
Here in Europe we could also learn a thing or two
You deserve every one of your 1.66M subscriptions! Great job of making a potentially boring topic absolutely fascinating!
The production value is awesome, ty Dami and team for posting
San Francisco Rec n Park can't purchase and install prefabricated toilets due to one of the commission members, Larry Mazolla, holding the city hostage via restricting them from doing business outside of the union which just increases prices way beyond what is reasonable. The Noe Valley restroom was going to total over $1m for construction when prefabricated toilets cost under $5k. Absolutely ridiculous especially when you go over the bridge to Oakland and Lake Merritt has brand new prefabricated toilets that look really nice.
Bad zoning and having to get permission to do too many things is probably the single biggest reason why cities can't get nice things in the U.S.
There are other reasons that might be bigger when put together, but if I had to pick just two, those would be it.
@@augusthoglund6053 They were demanding all facilities be constructed and provided by californian businesses. Fortunately that's been repealed now.
@@SLLabsKamilion The sourcing requirements have always been so onerous, the change in California is welcome.
as someone who has bladder problems, i have to plan in advance when going out like not drinking anything before leaving so i dont have to pee a billion times in a filthy public restroom. it's awful because it just reduces the quality of my life when i just want to try out a new drink i have to think in advance of where i have to go and either deal with how dirty it is because i have no choice (please dont ever hold your pee even if it's a cesspool just pee because it's really bad to hold ur piss) at this point i might as well just wear diapers
What're you strategies for finding toilets whilst on the go?
It doesn't have to be this way my friend, we can kill capitalism. I'm sorry you're subjected to such inhumanity
@@ElliotShayle Fortunately, Google maps has gotten better about including public restroom locations in their map data. They also get user feedback about closures and such which can be helpful. If you appreciate the resource, you should be sure to leave feedback for other users.
It can also be helpful to plan some of your excursions for after dark when it's easier to find a fairly private seeming dark shadow when you know you're a little too far from your next known restroom.
5:34 - that should tell you a lot. The US *IS* in many regards a developing nation. It lacks behind so many metrics compared to other developed nations. It's really astonishing how little Americans know about the state of their country.
This was such a well done video, from your explanations and editing to the way you eloquently anunciate your words. I'm obsessed with your channel, you've got me hooked on architecture 😅
It makes so much sense. my wife is a frequent toilet breaker and felt very much comfortable in Japan. She could go everywhere. It literally relieves a lot and not only fluids but also potty stress. Its a great experience using the public restrooms.
Here in the Netherlands, having to go to the toilet is a privilege. Almost every public toilet has to be paid for. For about 50 cents to a euro you may relieve yourself. And the toilets appear clean but the scent will make you almost faint. If you don’t have money to go then you’re screwed. There are some public spaces such as the airport where you can relieve yourself for free but the toilets smell like you’re entering a space that’s coated with ammonia.
I've lived and worked in China, Dubai, KSA, Lebanon, London (UK) and Nepal - far-flung places, not all at once. And the public toilets in each of these compared to Canada (home) and Japan are, as you've shown - nightmare fuel. The public toilets in China were traumatic. The pit in a shack in Nepal was at least well-ventilated, and few people missed the hole or urinated all over the walls. Dubai was better, but still, despite the glam and glitz, public toilets, unless in a big mall or venue, were to be avoided for all the reasons you can imagine, likewise in Saudi and Beirut. One reason we and these places have trouble with toilets is the concept of consideration of the other - we're a long way from that, and even in the most polite public settings it's our attitudes toward one another and the public spaces we share that make the toilet problem so hard, if not unsolvable. The shift in public conscientiousness, while possible, seems a very long way off in Canada and other places outside of Japan.
I don't know what part of China you lived in. I recently visited six cities in China (no, not Shanghai or Beijing), and to my surprise, I was able to find a public toilet every time within walking distance (5-8 minutes). Most of the public toilets are clean in general, albeit a bit old, but definitely cleaner than the toilets at Starbucks here in the states (SF, LA, NYC).
@@dustinreed1815 i remember one time visitng china i looked in a public bathroom in zhengding after my grandpa finished using it in 2013, i remembered it being large buckets of yellow liquid and the iconic smell of chinese pit toilet bathrooms. my mom told me my face was white when i went back out (altho idk if that was true). when mom visisted again in 2019, it was a lot better. i havent went back since 2018. hopefully most of the toilets in places i went back then have stalls, toilet paper, and can flush.
i also appreciate that theyre squat toilets; sanitary, and also is a more proper pooping position, as long as if it was a hybrid.
(12m ago, early so i could reply early)
@@dustinreed1815 Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. The malls and shopping areas are more likely to have cleaner toilets - not a guarantee though. Beijing had some of the worst and most foul-smelling public toilets. Not to say they're all like this but I managed to find more than a few. Restaurants were a reasonable bet for a cleaner toilet, but not always. Much depends on luck and location.
Interesting, I've been to China many times for months at a time in many different cities and I never saw a "traumatic" toilet like I do here stateside. I'd say the worst one was at GZ train station during holiday. Just a dirty squat toilet, but that's immensely better than heroin needles littered on the floor and some cases, questionably alive human beings strewn on the floor.
@@2WheelsGood.01 Yep. The upside to the bogs in China - No syringes. Nowhere to wash your hands, and it sucks to be you if you don't bring your own bog roll or wet wipes, but no syringes! If you don't mind the smell. In Nepal, public toilets are an experience as well. Not a good one, but an experience - don't touch anything, and for god's sake don't fall over when you squat! Public toilets in Japan were like heaven...okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but after a long stretch in Nepal or wherever, it definitely was a relief.😆
One alternative standard for public bathrooms that seems to work pretty well, is the "pay as you go" model that is common in Mexico and South America. The restroom use fee is often quite low, but it is apparently enough to pay for staff, which help maintain the facilities and provide some level of security. The restrooms are often fairly easy to find with large signs. They'll often be mixed right in among regular businesses. Everywhere was vastly better than what I would typically expect in an urban location in the US.
Oh no, this host thinks government should run everything including toilets. Notice her digs at private company toilets and joy with a beautiful public toilet. Ugh, another product of failed government schools, so sad to see such ignorance.
Same in Italy. Pay a euro or less to pee; no need to buy a coffee that makes you have to pee again in an hour
Ironically in Singapore, toilets in hawker food centres usually aren't free but are often dirtier than many other free toilets e.g. in shopping centres & hotels, maybe as the former are cleaned less frequently (daily I think) as they operate on smaller budgets, as the food they sell are cheaper
At $34,000 a month, you could easily hire 5 bathroom attendants 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.. Pay them each $4,000 a month and still save $14,000. There I just provided thousands of city jobs and reduce the cost. I was a maintenance manager at a smal mall for a few years and I found the one thing that the homeless and vandals crave the most his privacy. If you eliminate privacy, you eliminate vandalism and abuse of public spaces. I work now as a delivery driver in New York City and I know where there are many public bathrooms that are in reasonable repair. All of them are attached to rec centers in parks and they don't get trashed because there's always people around either working at or using the rec center.
you are wise but our
politician want accept good idea's because some are just elected idiots
You're just putting a Band-Aid on the infected wound. We should be dealing with the cause of infection.
The very same reason why we don't have clean bathrooms is also the reason why children can't walk around alone, why the rest stops in Northern California has no vending machines.
Infection spreads and infect other things.
AMAZING VIDEO. You have articulated my thoughts over the past 10 years in a perfect bit sized video. I’ll be sending to many friends and family.
I’ve told numerous people as crazy as it sounds I’m moving forever to Japan from Vancouver Canada and the public washrooms thing was the key to my decision. I was set on a path of studying one of the hardest languages on earth for an English speaker and changed my entire life because of this. It seems insane but when you really think about it deeply this public washroom thing explains the entire worldview of Canada vs Japan and everything can be boiled down to this washrooms thing. It explains everything.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use the washroom in downtown and it took nearly 20 mins or more to find a clean suitable one and often I have to beg a store owner to let me use one after searching for blocks and blocks.
In Japan sometimes in ONE train station even a small one in a rural area there can be upwards of 6 washrooms just in the station.. One on the platform, one when you climb up the stairs from the platform, one a bit further down the hallway, one after the exit gates, one before the exit gates etc etc
Larger stations I can’t even fathom how many probably close to a hundred in Tokyo Station I’m sure. How many in the main terminus station for Vancouver waterfront? Zero.
トイレの問題が、ここまで深刻だったとは！隣の芝生が良く見えるだけかもです。バンクーバーは素敵な所だと思います❤
Dami Lee, please keep up the good work. Your videos are very interesting and thoughtful.
because you said it companies responsible for mainteance do the bare minimum to maintaine because that cuts into profits and profits are above everything. Its a wide spread problem in north america, if it can turn a profit then its not worth doing
$34.000 /month where does all the money go?
Literally just hire 2 people to takes shifts to look after the toilet. Im sure vandalizing would drastically decrease if there were someone at all times outside the toilet. And of course make those people clean the toilet every couple of hours.
🧂
0:20 i think i’m dragging the average down with my 1 time per day
huge coincidence but i recently watched the movie Perfect Days. its a Japanese movie that follows the simple yet interesting life of a Tokyo public toilet cleaner. in this video i see some of the public bathrooms that you've visited found in the movie and i am in awe of how common and how cleanly they are. living on the east side of Canada, i find it rare to see such urban designs for public toilets that are also well maintained. i always love the effort and care that you and your team put into making these videos, keep up the amazing work ♥♥♥
Great episode. Love your work! Thank you for having such an amazing channel that informs and inspires.
They have a big public toilet facility right in the center of Nashville Indiana and when I visited there I was amazed at how clean it was. It's not all of America, it's the culture of her major cities versus her more rural areas too.
Yep, went to school in Helena Montana and it was night and day compared to my hometown of Portland Oregon. Lots of homeless people use the library bathroom in Helena but I never saw it trashed. They don’t tolerate anti-social behavior there, just like Japan (I lived in Japan for three years as well).
We’re gaslit in the west to think that these problems are “part and parcel of living in a big city”, they aren’t. They’re a product of tolerating anti-social behavior and for some reason the urban centers of the west have concluded that we have to throw our hands up in defeat when confronted with antisocial behavior, especially from drug addicts.
My name is Flushmaster and I approve this message. Seriously, don't be @$$holes about public restroom facilities. Everybody uses them, including yourself. Leave them in a condition you would want to come back to.
And one thing too is that people in Japan are taught a collective responsibility.
I'm not a huge fan of a lot of East Asian schooling, but I will say I love Japanese kindergartens they're absolutely wonderful.
From the time that children are in kindergarten, they are taught to be socially collectively responsible for cleaning.
* Yes, Western schools do it to a certain point or at least they used to like. For instance, I remember when we had chalkboards and we would clean the chalkboard or we would help with cleaning the desk but that was only probably a few times a year.
And I'm by no means saying this replaces the custodial for they deal with more intense cleaning products. But it should be that we teach from a young age that everybody has a responsibility.
Another thing is lot of the time I've observed that people complain about handicap bathrooms, but in my mind all bathrooms should be accessible rather than condemning people who don't appear to be disabled.
Toilets should be made for people, It's a basic human right, people should feel comfortable to go to the go to the toilet.
As a person who's had a pretty Public bathroom phobia. I for years would not go into a public bathroom. This leads to health problems. Especially as a female.
Always so grateful when someone is talking about this!!🎯
Thank you so much for making these videos, helps me a lot as an architecture student to discover fascinating things I don't usually get in school.
I think it boils down to the Japanese culture, it is well ingrained in their youth that they have to clean up after themselves, whereas in North America, we kind of expect someone to get paid to clean up after us.
From that "typical vancouver scream", I know exactly where you are referring to 🤣
Most Japanese toilets has a paper that says “Thank you for using the toilet clean” and I don’t see anything like this anywhere else in the world.
Cause that paper too will be "used"..
you can see it here in Serbia but it's not often respected
I don't think the junkies in Berlin Neukölln would care…
How did you not even crack a smirk at the "pipe dream" pun Dami?? Unforgivable lmao
very nice video! loved the solution of attaching shops/services to the toilet
the difference is culture and respect
Kind of have to agree. The Japanese don’t look at society and property the way we do in the west.
Yeah, even though their cost of living in Japan is huge, their crime and poverty levels are pretty low in comparison to other countries.
That being said 300-400 thousand a year to operate is insanity.
The problem is that they are taking care of the toilets while ignoring the people. Until you fix the people, you won't have pleasant cities. You need to keep people housed, employed, fed, and cared for in terms of mental and medical health. Do that, and the cities fix themselves.
Too true
Love the reference to Jordan Schlansky and the iconic trip with Conan O’Brien to Italy, “human soil.” 😂
Classic!
Just discovered your channel, it is amazing. I really like the work that you do. It's like a combination between architecture and history, it's awesome!
I just watched a 17 min video about toilets issues and I'm here to say it was very informative.
Massive coincidence, I just started tracking how many times I go #1, because I'm going camping outdoors for a week soon.
I counted SIX times and I thought that was a lot. 12 times a day? omg
Agreed she should probably see a gynecologist, not to be gross about it
It really just depends on how much you drink throughout the day. I'm always sipping on something so I go a lot.
idk about all that. but it must be a lot of water. i guess some people just like water
@@pavelow235 A urologist is the urinary system doctor.
When I was in japan public restrooms, people wiped the sink after themselves. I never see that in America. It's a cultural respect.
Pay a homeless person $100 a day to maintain 1 toilet. It would only cost 36500 a year and it would be a huge win for both parties.
Obviously you are American.
A hundred dollars for maybe 20 toilets in a day.
@@comcc8753 Would you clean 20 public toilets for $100?
As always Dami, the care given to the issues raised in this video is very needed and appreciated.
Examining how we treat ourselves, each other and our environment - is reflected in places such as public toilets.
We all want better spaces - but do we want them enough to invest our attention into what it means to make the necessary changes?
Thank you for asking these questions and making a space for us to discuss our answers and to bring to the fore front of our minds how much power we have to improve such situations.
It’s not just a toilet.
It’s a real reflection of URBAN life and what it means to function as a member of an urban community.
Excellent video essay 🎉
In the area where I live even privately owned public toilets - in places like restaraunts or fast-food joints - are quite repulsive and unsanitary, even though they have people cleaning them several times a day. I wouldn't let anything but my home toilet to touch my butt in basically all but the most direst situations. I think this is also a part of why public toilets are horrible, because people _think_ that they _should_ be horrible.
It goes so far that I basically obtained a sort of a phobia of public toilets. I will be unwilling to enter one even if it appears clean, because of my conviction that it really isn't.
I stopped cleaning the bathrooms at my job because people are so awful. We also have a janitor who doesn't want to do their job half the time, but the public are disgusting and have no shame.
Gold episode
1:02 says it all 😂😂😂😂😂
Super eye opening, and something I've been thinking for a long time! Thanks for making a change! Top notch RUclipsr!
I Loooove what you Do. Thank you for doing it. I´m learning what my city needs and how to ignite the change.
I so love that you included a clip from the relatively recent South Park episode. That’s really how I heard about the superior toilets.
I think toilets are a basic human right and I am alarmed that typically I only pee 3 times a day.
Either you need more water or your bladder is huge
I'm confused why if it costs 400k a year to self maintain these toilets, could we not just hire a person who's job is to look after that ONE specific toilet space and just clean it every week?
It must include the Police Budget.
@@tengille I mean would it really be outside the 400k a year budget to clean daily? I feel like we could still have weekends off. average salary in the US is like what 60k a year?
Yes how the fuck cost 400k is Dr. Shaibonki cleaning the mf toilet rim with surgical wipes or what? Cmon 100k tops a year and that could cover a cluster of them
@@heriport6654when government is designing and building something in a restrictive permitting environment, there is almost no limit to the cost.
As a New York City resident, I would be happy if our 1940s/50s/60s era public bathrooms could be open and relatively clean and safe. We don’t need works 17:01 of art or existential experiences. We need a place to do number 1 and number 2. I have traveled in Europe and there and at least in the tourist areas there were always public restrooms available. Nothing fancy and sometimes up/down stairs but they are there unlike NYC.
A subscription to be able to pee feels a wee bit dystopian to me. Strong "Urinetown" vibes.
The day that sub to be able to use the throne is needed, money minded people are going to jack rates just to line thier pockets.... at least here in the us anyway.
Another fantastic video. Great job Dami Lee and team.
OMG this is a great episode. You made it fun, presonal and relatable. You kept my attention all the way from the beginning till the end..
What is the notes app for doing research at 7:31? looks interesting!!
did you ever find out?
someone please share the app. please @damilee
found the app - it's called Milanote
@jacobma1514 it’s called milanote
I have some progress here. I pasted a screenshot to ChatGPT, and it gives the answer: The tool you saw in the image appears to be Miro, a popular online whiteboard platform that allows users to organize and collaborate visually on a digital canvas. I am exploring how to use it now. I do not know how it make image searchable and be highlighted. Maybe it is not Miro she is using?
Because of the pervasive childish narcissistic antisocial cultures we've created.
It's not about race, it's about culture.
When certain cultures raise their kids to believe that they're already a victim, so take what you can get away with, you get what we see in major cities: high petty theft and vandalism.
And when those same cultures glorify violence, mysogeny, and vulgarity, you get what you see. The inability to be civil and respectful to others, it's all about THEM and THEIR needs and feelings and ^%#$^ everyone else.
A Leftist somewhere is offended by your comment.
12:38 That $150,000 price tag is still insane. That breaks down to $5,000 for the metal box, and then $145,000 for a bunch of parasitic middlemen to embezzle from tax money.
I'm not located in any of these places, but your presentation and story telling is so good I watched the whole thing
Wonderful piece. Well done and comprehensive. An issue for me most of my life. I was just in Japan a few weeks ago and was happy to see clean public toilets everywhere. Even in Kyoto along the river, there was a clean public toilet that I very much appreciated. Great work. David
You are an amazing person. Very positive vibes
I think it has to do with the level of society and what kind of people there are in a country! Public toilets don't work in my country either, so much so that they just removed all public toilets. The people are freggin animals around here! I think there must be new public toilets in underground parking now but I am not sure since I haven't been there yet.
I have family in the US and Japan, I have lived in both, and it's obvious to anyone with eyes what is actually different between Japan and the West. Public toilets work in Japan because it's a mono-cultural, homogeneous society that mostly agrees on basic civilized attitudes like respecting public and private property. People rarely vandalize because there is a sense of shame associated with it. In most of the West, outside of maybe some Scandinavian countries where you find similar monocultures, there's no universally cultivated respect of others or their property. In fact, people who encourage vandalism or destruction are often praised or protected by the media.
It doesn't have to be perfectly homogenous but you need a healthy amount of patriotism and nationalism. If I don't love my country and my people why would I give a fuck about anything that's not my own?
This is why I disliked the video.
She's too much of a coward to talk about the real reason this happens.
Japan also has an insanely high conviction rate, so it's not all sunshine and roses over there.
@@robrick9361 you're halfway there. Soon you will realise that high conviction rate is good and is among the reason they have more civilised population. Some people can only be reasoned by fear/violence
@@alexmin4752 Human error alone means that Japan has far more innocent people in prison than any other country.
Now I don't like what's happening in the west in places like New York but there has to be a way to achieve a more reasonable balance then these two extremes.
I don't think it's nationalism or patriotism or multiculturalism that's the issue. It's civility. If you can't respect a person that isn't related to you, you won't respect a facility that's built also for people you don't know (rather unfortunate, since it's also built for you).
I've always hated using public bathrooms ever since i was a kid due to the sanitation conditions and learned to hold my urges in until we got to a place i deemed "safe" enough to let it out. People need to get rid of the mentality of "if its not mine, I don't need to take care of it", as it makes all places less accessible because of selfishness and discourages culture of connection.
Excellent analysis of what is a indicator of our societies. I live in France, and most public toilets have disappeared, and I wondered why. Your analysis brings some explanations, even if there's a cultural dimension that's important. Our society has become self-centered and many people don't respect public facilities. Your conclusion to go private while including other services seems good. Thank you for this !
What software do you use to centralize your research papers ?