It’s been a local and tourist curiosity for years. But new reports have forced Shibuya Ward in Tokyo to put the walls back up on its gimmicky “transparent toilets”.
The toilets, located in Yoyogi Fukamachi Elementary Park and Haruno-Ogawa Community Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, contain material that’s transparent when the doors are unlocked. When the doors are locked from the inside, the material inside the walls is energized and the walls become opaque. The trick provides for a nice conversation piece while ultimately providing the privacy we’ve all come to expect from restrooms.
However, a recent popular streamer broke the news on a stream on December 13th that the toilets don’t always work as advertised.
According to local press reports, the company that operates the toilets confirmed that, when the temperature drops, it takes time for the particles in the wall to become energized. This leads to a gap in time in which the walls are still transparent while someone is inside. The problem is likely more pronounced now as Japan faces one of its fiercest winters on record.
The company that operates the toilets acknowledged and apologized for the problem. It says it has installed devices in the toilets to oscillate them between on and off states to keep the particles warm. “We will continue to monitor the situation to prevent future recurrences,” they said.
Originally reported on Unseen Japan’s Twitter.
Sources
渋谷のガラス張りトイレ〝丸見え〟騒動 「おしゃれ公衆トイレ」過去に事件も 専門家に聞く使用時の注意点. With News
