A member of the Japanese Communist Party garnered headlines – and automated death threats – when she declared on social media that women’s sanitary products should be free in public buildings “like toilet paper.” The city hall where she had the emergency that preceded her post doesn’t agree. However, free sanitary product dispensing services already exist in numerous locations across Japan.
People might steal them (?)
We covered last week how Mie Prefectural Assembly member Yoshida Ayaka of the JCP made the post after she was caught out in Tsu City Hall without any pads when her period came on suddenly. She posted her frustration on her X account that the bathrooms didn’t have sanitary products, and advocated that public locations give them away like they do toilet paper.
The idea isn’t new; some countries – and even some cities in Japan – do exactly that. However, right-wing bomb-thrower Sugita Mio ridiculed the idea and criticized Yoshida for being irresponsible. Shortly after, someone automated sending 8,000 death threats to the Mie Prefectural assembly office from a single address.
Sankei Shimbun asked the city why it didn’t stock sanitary products. The city responded that it polled other Mie prefectural municipalities to see what they do. Based on this, the city decided that the risk of theft and the cost involved in supplying free feminine products were too much.
(I’m not sure how far that reasoning flies. People also steal toilet paper, as evidenced by this sign in the Ooimachi Itoyokado toilet stalls.)
The city also pointed out the existence of a convenience store in the building that sells sanitary products. On the other hand, it insists that it has stocked enough sanitary napkins in the emergency shelters that it maintains in case disaster strikes.
A problem with an existing solution
Some loud voices online in Japan are insisting that providing free sanitary products for women would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. Women, the critics huff, should simply be better prepared.
However, according to a survey by Next Innovation in 2021 of 2,428 women, 74% have been caught out without sanitary products in the past. A full 95% of respondents said they would use a free sanitary napkin service if it existed.
There are already ways to dispense sanitary products that deter theft. Seibu Railways, for example, has installed an automated dispenser in women’s bathrooms at Ikebukuro Station that works via a QR code. The device and smartphone apps, made by Next Innovation and marketed under the name toreluna, will dispense a sanitary napkin for free upon request.
The device is currently available in numerous train station locations and public buildings nationwide. As I wrote last time, Nakano City Hall installed these devices back in 2021.
This is, in other words, a solved problem. The current backlash goes to show how some people will oppose a sensible solution if it doesn’t directly benefit men.
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