On southwestern Miyajima island, Hiroshima Prefecture, a short walk from one of the country¡¯s most famous ancient temple sites, there¡¯s a brand new attraction for tourists ¡ª a state-of-the art public toilet block nearly as big as a tennis court.
The 183-square-meter facility ¡ª created jointly by the local municipality and Toto, Japan¡¯s biggest toilet-maker ¡ª is just one of hundreds that have been spruced up across the country ahead of this summer¡¯s Olympic Games in Tokyo, removing old-school squat toilets to welcome foreign tourists.
The challenge is dwarfed by that faced by planners for Tokyo¡¯s previous Olympics. Before the 1964 Games, only 20 percent of the city had a sewerage system, pit toilets festooned the city and trucks dubbed ¡°honey wagons¡± patrolled neighborhoods to suck human waste into tanks for disposal elsewhere.
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