Lines for women’s public restrooms in Japan can be excruciating. They bothered one Japanese woman so much that she went on a quest to figure out why. Her research is renewing a debate over what constitutes Restroom Equality.
According to Asahi Shimbun, 60-year-old paralegal Momose Manami first noticed the phenomenon when traveling back to a concert in Kurashiki (Okayama Prefecture) to Matsue (Shimane Prefecture) in 2022. For two and a half years after, whenever she went to a public facility, she’d count the available restrooms for each gender, including both private rooms and urinals for men. (This was based on in-building maps showing how many facilities each restroom has.)
After counting 706 facilities, she discovered that, while most locations generally devoted the same amount of physical space to men’s and women’s restrooms, men had more actual facilities.
For example, the JR Hachioji Station in Tokyo has six private stalls for women. But it has seven private stalls and 10 urinals for men – meaning there are 2.8 times more options for men than women.
Momose found this pattern wherever she went. Retail businesses tended to be more equal, with only 1.1 male restroom facilities per 1 for women. Public transit was particularly bad, with 1.7 facilities per men for every 1 for women.
Space vs. time equality
So what’s going on? Is this an example of the patriarchy at work?
When Momose’s work ended up on social media, it sparked a debate over what constitutes equality in the restroom. Many men groused that equal space = equal treatment and that Momose should just shut the hell up. But Momose contends that equality should be measured in wait times – not square meters.
Many women seem to agree with her. A survey run by Japan Toilet Labo. found that 47.6% of women complained about having to wait in line for the toilet at large retail facilities – over 3x the number of men who said the same.
Other studies on restroom time reinforce the need for more facilities to dispel long queues. As NTV highlighted in a February 2024 segment, a study by NEXCO of restroom use at Japan’s service areas found that women took around 93.1 seconds in the restroom compared to 37.7 seconds for men.
That’s a pretty natural outcome, given that women can’t use urinals and may also need time to handle changing sanitary napkins during menstruation. NEXCO estimated that eliminating lines would require installing at least 1.5 times the facilities for women that currently exist for men.
What’s interesting is that, in offices, this pattern is reversed. An office partition maker that examined business use of toilets found in 2021 that men camped out for around 6 minutes and 52 seconds on average, compared to only 2 minutes and 32 seconds for women. That’s an increase from 1965, when men spent 5 minutes to women’s 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Blame smartphones, I guess. Also, Japanese toilets are kind of awesome, so who can blame us?
Standards set by the International Red Cross say that, to ensure equal treatment, it sets up toilets at humanitarian camps on a 1:3 ratio for men vs. women. Some countries have codified such standards into law. Taiwan, for example, passed legislation in 2013 that regulates a 1:5 ratio for institutions like schools and train stations, and a 1:3 ratio for offices. Canada and some US states set a 1:2 standard.
Based on Momose’s data, Japan is a long way from achieving that standard. Maybe one day, if the issue continues to receive more media attention and other issues such as separate spousal surnames are resolved, that’ll change.
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