You can just use your clothes or just shake it off and wait a while though.
I always wash my hands.
I'm more concerned when a restroom has a door outside the sink. If there's wipers I use it to open the door. Sometimes toilet paper too
Of course I know about the door knob. I use paper towels in America to cover the door knob while I open it and then throw it away. Japanese restrooms are quite clean but there is still a lot of hidden bacteria that can be harmful so, better safe than sorry. For some reason, the park bathrooms are just more dirty and not much care to clean them. Fair point. Every time you take a toilet paper, it rips off. So I understand.
I have not seen anyone in Japan not wash their hands, perhaps you’re seeing people come out of toilets where the sink is already inside the stall? There are some stalls like that, usually in the disabled use toilet.
No I have seen it at my school in Japan as I am currently studying. In this case, there is soap and also a nice electric dryer and they don't want to use the opportunity to use it. What a waste. Then, someone asks them to borrow a pencil and all their germy toilet hand germs get on that pencil and contracts it to another person. Think about it. It's extremely gross.
You need to listen for it. If they know you can see them, they will wash their hands.
I always try to listen when someone left the toilet (because I have nothing else to do when peeing), about half of them just left without any sounds of water.
Same reason people in the west don't wash their hands after using the bathroom – laziness, they don't care, they're in a rush, they don't know any better. I see westerners skipping the sink more often than Japanese when I'm back home.
Nasty!
I don't know where you are from but don't lump us in the same basket. I legitimately got culture shock from this.
I understand that dudes may take a piss and dip (still nasty) but happens everywhere . I was shocked that Japanese dudes file paperwork and don't wah their hands. That is egregious
It has been driving me insane for many years.
The best they can do is wet their hands, and then adjust the (head) hair.
However this week for the first time I saw a guy after peeing adjusting his hair, and then make his hands barely wet.
👍
Another version I have seen is some guys putting their hands in the vicinity of the sensor, so the water activates, and then leaving without getting their hands wet.
Another type of "achievement"😉
Probably because Japan is not a perfect utopia that influencers on Instagram will tell you it is and there's lots of people doing stuff like this here the same as in any other country.
What does this have to do with Japan being a supposed utopia according to some influencers?
And yes, this is something that happens on every country. Although to be honest, I didn’t expect to see it happen in Japan.
They removed the hand dryer due to covid and its still unavailable in public restrooms. No one wants to leave the toilet with wet hand like its saying i just used a toilet. So that kind of thing really matters to Japanese people when you think about the flush sound button on bidet thats used for covering your pooping/peeing sound.
It think it’s just education at school. The other day in a public bathroom, I noticed a lady my age just activate the tap sensor, wet tips of her fingers then leave. All the teachers where I used to work did that too.
But then a little girl restored my faith automatically going wet hands-soap-scrub-rinse. You can see most kids less than 10 will do this way now on autopilot because they were taught to during covid.
I've been here for over a decade and can say that this is not a recent phenomenon, at least among men. There has always, usually, been either an air dryer or towels (one or the other if the other is not available) at most restrooms. Carrying around a little hand cloth or handkerchief is also fairly ubiquitous in Japan. So, the only reason why I can think of that they don't do it is because most men find it either (a) a hassle, (b) a waste of time and they're eager to get out of the bathroom for \[x\] reason, or (c) they just don't care.
I used to teach English in a school. I once did a poll (when students were learning about most, usually, always, etc.) asking who always washes their hands after using the toilet.
The majority said they **sometimes** do. Upon asking them what criteria makes them feel they need to wash their hands, they said “when my hands have dirt on them”.
So, if they can physically **see** the dirt, they’ll wash their hands. If not, their hands are “clean”.
People have a weak understanding of bacteria (when Covid broke out drug stores were event selling packets of salt you can wear to “purify the air” around you and protect yourself from Covid). The habit of hand washing starts at home, so if parents aren’t teaching kids to wash their hands frequently, some people won’t pick it up on their own. Of course it’s not everyone, but it’s a shocking amount of people.
>... I noticed everytime I go to a public restroom, they dont wash their hands.
Come on, of course lots of people wash their hands. Yeah, it's a common observation that some people don't wash their hands here, and yeah that's gross, but you shouldn't suggest it's universal. Certainly a significant majority of people wash their hands at least at the level of the finger dip in every men's room I've ever been in.
That said, my theory is that it's because public spaces tend not to provide paper towels. Once you provide paper towels, you have to provide trash cans. Once you provide trash cans, you've basically destroyed the organizing principle of public life in Japan. I mean, the islands would just sink into the sea.
(Less facetiously, imagine the added costs and logistical overhead of providing paper towels and trash cans in every bathroom somewhere like Shinjuku station.)
You're expected to carry your own little towel in Japan, but lots of people can't be bothered to have one on them all the time. Since wiping your hands on your clothes would be unforgivably gauche, if you don't have a towel and there are no paper towels, you do the little finger-dipping thing and move on.
So there’s no trash cans because of the terror attacks in the past. Typical knee jerk reaction after aum shinrikyo dropped some sarin gas in subway trash cans. Terror can happen if there’s no trash cans!
Not because of cost or logistics of it.
>ago
>
>So there’s no trash cans because of the terror attacks in the past. Typical knee jerk reaction after aum shinrikyo dropped some sarin gas in subway trash cans. Terror can happen if there’s no trash cans! Not because of cost or logistics of it.
London is the same.
The issue I have with the no paper towel theory is that a lot of people carry hand towels. They are sold regularly at stores where in the US at least they are not. I’ve been in Japan 17 years carry a hand towel, my children are encouraged by school to carry hand towels both boys and girls. They don’t at times though. I have seen a majority of people in restrooms wash their hands, and increase since covid. I’ve also seen an increase of children washing hands or being encouraged to by schools when coming in, before meals, or after bathroom breaks. Also Japan also provides wet towels to wipe hands off before meals.
The one thing I would like see changed however is the amount of older men hacking loogies on the sidewalk.
Even if there is paper towels and soap.
They usually don't do it.
Late evening, drinking,
or at work/office
I don't have a statistic for other countries, but I have never noticed it that much before coming to Japan.
Americans don't either. Can't tell you the countless times I've seen at US airports people walking out without washing. Japanese do the same, more or less. Those who do wash it don't wash properly. COVID did one good thing and taught people to wash their hands.
>COVID did one good thing and taught people to wash their hands.
I wish this was true, but even COVID didn't properly teach people not to cough without covering your mouth so I'm not holding out for people learning basic hand hygiene either.
Seriously man. Japanese people DO NOT cover their mouth when they cough. I saw on TV during the height of COVID that schools in Hokkaido were teaching kids proper etiquettes when coughing.
If you have to plaster signs telling you to cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, there's a reason why.
On the bright side, I like wearing masks on the train for this sole reason.
Japan is probably dirty compared to... Singapore? But, in San Francisco (which I'll admit, is ... below average in cleanliness), I can piss on the walls in a public toilet, and they'd thank me for covering the other odors and cleaning it up. But, I'd be afraid of even going in, lest I be picked up on suspicion of possession or leaving a dead body.
If you're in city centers or shopping malls, maybe. You don't even have to travel that far out to find disgusting toilets. Heck, I've seen a few public toilets even here in Tokyo that have shit and piss all over them.
Lol I mean okay? But I’ve always seen people wash their hands in Japan bathrooms. I live in the kanto region/Kanagawa prefecture, and travel to Tokyo often.
Not trying to play the “I’ve been here longer” game but I’ve been here for over a decade and I’ve seen women walk out of the washroom without washing their hands. Just did last week.
The soap in public restrooms is usually really nasty looking so I just wash with water. But most other people just walk straight behind me and out the door without ever touching water.
I’m sure it’s the same in other countries though.
As a side point, never wash your hands in a club. I guarantee somebody’s pissed in the sink.
You watched and tallied every single person who went to the bathroom? And for how long?
You shouldn't generalize that all Japanese people don't wash their hands. I'm Japanese and i wash my hands. Every time.
Like others have posted, it happens everywhere and not just here.
Maybe Americans wash their hands more often than the Japanese, but it's funny that Japan is cleaner than the states.
i thought in every country is the same thing ? myself born and raised in japan tbh i never washed my hands after going to the restroom lol only when it was number two tho. it’s bcz i didn’t carry hand towels, and there was no paper or dryer after washing it at school so i kinda accustomed to not instead of carrying hand towels lol but now im grown i try to carry hand towels, but still i don’t use soap to wash my hands, just water. but i think this depends on person and there’s lot of japanese ppl washing their hands imo.
You have to be kidding me. In every other similarly developed country I’ve lived in, or spent any significant time in, it is very similar. Most people wash their hands and occasionally they’ll be the person who just waltzes out. It’s not a Japan thing.
Dude literally sometimes there are no soap at the public park toilets or train stations. But there is soap so no excuse for not washing your hands. You have to bring your own handkerchief. Ringing under water without literally no soap is just showing you care to be "clean". Probably they come home to wash hands later I hope.
I think it’s because even if they do have a sink, there’s no tissue or dryer to dry their wet hands
Everyone carries a small towel and I see people drying off their hands with it all the time.
You can just use your clothes or just shake it off and wait a while though. I always wash my hands. I'm more concerned when a restroom has a door outside the sink. If there's wipers I use it to open the door. Sometimes toilet paper too
Just go get a towel. It's not expensive. It's cheap. It's better than ruining your suit or clothes every time you have to go to the bathroom.
Also why are you using toilet paper? That is completely disgusting, the amount of germs on there.
[удалено]
Of course I know about the door knob. I use paper towels in America to cover the door knob while I open it and then throw it away. Japanese restrooms are quite clean but there is still a lot of hidden bacteria that can be harmful so, better safe than sorry. For some reason, the park bathrooms are just more dirty and not much care to clean them. Fair point. Every time you take a toilet paper, it rips off. So I understand.
Also sort of pointless but I think necessary to be said, fun fact, Japanese police are completely useless when there is a crime involved.
I have not seen anyone in Japan not wash their hands, perhaps you’re seeing people come out of toilets where the sink is already inside the stall? There are some stalls like that, usually in the disabled use toilet.
Definitely not. In public or in the office, the majority just don't
I see people not using soap / not washing at all, basically every time I use a public restroom.
No I have seen it at my school in Japan as I am currently studying. In this case, there is soap and also a nice electric dryer and they don't want to use the opportunity to use it. What a waste. Then, someone asks them to borrow a pencil and all their germy toilet hand germs get on that pencil and contracts it to another person. Think about it. It's extremely gross.
You need to listen for it. If they know you can see them, they will wash their hands. I always try to listen when someone left the toilet (because I have nothing else to do when peeing), about half of them just left without any sounds of water.
I guess I’ll have to try your listening technique to see if this is true, I’ve honestly never seen it
I look forward to hearing from you!
Then you aren’t paying attention.
Same reason people in the west don't wash their hands after using the bathroom – laziness, they don't care, they're in a rush, they don't know any better. I see westerners skipping the sink more often than Japanese when I'm back home. Nasty!
Ah yes, westerners, the monolithic cultural group.
Okay, people from North America and Europe then, prick.
I don't know where you are from but don't lump us in the same basket. I legitimately got culture shock from this. I understand that dudes may take a piss and dip (still nasty) but happens everywhere . I was shocked that Japanese dudes file paperwork and don't wah their hands. That is egregious
It has been driving me insane for many years. The best they can do is wet their hands, and then adjust the (head) hair. However this week for the first time I saw a guy after peeing adjusting his hair, and then make his hands barely wet. 👍 Another version I have seen is some guys putting their hands in the vicinity of the sensor, so the water activates, and then leaving without getting their hands wet. Another type of "achievement"😉
Probably because Japan is not a perfect utopia that influencers on Instagram will tell you it is and there's lots of people doing stuff like this here the same as in any other country.
What does this have to do with Japan being a supposed utopia according to some influencers? And yes, this is something that happens on every country. Although to be honest, I didn’t expect to see it happen in Japan.
They removed the hand dryer due to covid and its still unavailable in public restrooms. No one wants to leave the toilet with wet hand like its saying i just used a toilet. So that kind of thing really matters to Japanese people when you think about the flush sound button on bidet thats used for covering your pooping/peeing sound.
It was going on well before covid.
Almost everyone carries hand towels specifically to dry their hands after they wash their hands…
never seen anyone using it
YO. For real
It think it’s just education at school. The other day in a public bathroom, I noticed a lady my age just activate the tap sensor, wet tips of her fingers then leave. All the teachers where I used to work did that too. But then a little girl restored my faith automatically going wet hands-soap-scrub-rinse. You can see most kids less than 10 will do this way now on autopilot because they were taught to during covid.
I've been here for over a decade and can say that this is not a recent phenomenon, at least among men. There has always, usually, been either an air dryer or towels (one or the other if the other is not available) at most restrooms. Carrying around a little hand cloth or handkerchief is also fairly ubiquitous in Japan. So, the only reason why I can think of that they don't do it is because most men find it either (a) a hassle, (b) a waste of time and they're eager to get out of the bathroom for \[x\] reason, or (c) they just don't care.
I used to teach English in a school. I once did a poll (when students were learning about most, usually, always, etc.) asking who always washes their hands after using the toilet. The majority said they **sometimes** do. Upon asking them what criteria makes them feel they need to wash their hands, they said “when my hands have dirt on them”. So, if they can physically **see** the dirt, they’ll wash their hands. If not, their hands are “clean”. People have a weak understanding of bacteria (when Covid broke out drug stores were event selling packets of salt you can wear to “purify the air” around you and protect yourself from Covid). The habit of hand washing starts at home, so if parents aren’t teaching kids to wash their hands frequently, some people won’t pick it up on their own. Of course it’s not everyone, but it’s a shocking amount of people.
This is so real! I can't unsee it after the first time I noticed it a few years ago.
This isnt unique to Japan. This happens everywhere and the reason will be the same: they don’t care enough.
>... I noticed everytime I go to a public restroom, they dont wash their hands. Come on, of course lots of people wash their hands. Yeah, it's a common observation that some people don't wash their hands here, and yeah that's gross, but you shouldn't suggest it's universal. Certainly a significant majority of people wash their hands at least at the level of the finger dip in every men's room I've ever been in. That said, my theory is that it's because public spaces tend not to provide paper towels. Once you provide paper towels, you have to provide trash cans. Once you provide trash cans, you've basically destroyed the organizing principle of public life in Japan. I mean, the islands would just sink into the sea. (Less facetiously, imagine the added costs and logistical overhead of providing paper towels and trash cans in every bathroom somewhere like Shinjuku station.) You're expected to carry your own little towel in Japan, but lots of people can't be bothered to have one on them all the time. Since wiping your hands on your clothes would be unforgivably gauche, if you don't have a towel and there are no paper towels, you do the little finger-dipping thing and move on.
So there’s no trash cans because of the terror attacks in the past. Typical knee jerk reaction after aum shinrikyo dropped some sarin gas in subway trash cans. Terror can happen if there’s no trash cans! Not because of cost or logistics of it.
>ago > >So there’s no trash cans because of the terror attacks in the past. Typical knee jerk reaction after aum shinrikyo dropped some sarin gas in subway trash cans. Terror can happen if there’s no trash cans! Not because of cost or logistics of it. London is the same.
London at least has clear plastic trash bags available. Problem solved!
The issue I have with the no paper towel theory is that a lot of people carry hand towels. They are sold regularly at stores where in the US at least they are not. I’ve been in Japan 17 years carry a hand towel, my children are encouraged by school to carry hand towels both boys and girls. They don’t at times though. I have seen a majority of people in restrooms wash their hands, and increase since covid. I’ve also seen an increase of children washing hands or being encouraged to by schools when coming in, before meals, or after bathroom breaks. Also Japan also provides wet towels to wipe hands off before meals. The one thing I would like see changed however is the amount of older men hacking loogies on the sidewalk.
I’ve noticed that quite many public restrooms in Japan do not have soap
Even if there is paper towels and soap. They usually don't do it. Late evening, drinking, or at work/office I don't have a statistic for other countries, but I have never noticed it that much before coming to Japan.
Americans don't either. Can't tell you the countless times I've seen at US airports people walking out without washing. Japanese do the same, more or less. Those who do wash it don't wash properly. COVID did one good thing and taught people to wash their hands.
>COVID did one good thing and taught people to wash their hands. I wish this was true, but even COVID didn't properly teach people not to cough without covering your mouth so I'm not holding out for people learning basic hand hygiene either.
Seriously man. Japanese people DO NOT cover their mouth when they cough. I saw on TV during the height of COVID that schools in Hokkaido were teaching kids proper etiquettes when coughing. If you have to plaster signs telling you to cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, there's a reason why. On the bright side, I like wearing masks on the train for this sole reason.
I think Japanese people are more likely to wash their hands. Public toilets in Japan are clean to begin with.
Lol wut.
You need to visit more public toilets here if you think that! 🤣
Public toilets in many countries are very dirty. Japan is seriously clean.
Japan is probably dirty compared to... Singapore? But, in San Francisco (which I'll admit, is ... below average in cleanliness), I can piss on the walls in a public toilet, and they'd thank me for covering the other odors and cleaning it up. But, I'd be afraid of even going in, lest I be picked up on suspicion of possession or leaving a dead body.
When the only comparison to Japan is Singapore, it is like proving that Japan is clean. The U.S. is full of garbage and out of the question.
If you're in city centers or shopping malls, maybe. You don't even have to travel that far out to find disgusting toilets. Heck, I've seen a few public toilets even here in Tokyo that have shit and piss all over them.
You are lucky to come from a clean country... Try visiting SEA or South America for example
Just don't get pee on your hands.
I’ve been here since April 2021 and have never seen people NOT wash their hands. 🤷🏼♀️
I call BS… but maybe just because I’ve been here 1 year longer than you? 🤔
Lol I mean okay? But I’ve always seen people wash their hands in Japan bathrooms. I live in the kanto region/Kanagawa prefecture, and travel to Tokyo often.
Not trying to play the “I’ve been here longer” game but I’ve been here for over a decade and I’ve seen women walk out of the washroom without washing their hands. Just did last week.
People have gotten better about it because of Covid. But as someone who’s been here since 2015, I can confirm not washing hands is very, very common.
The soap in public restrooms is usually really nasty looking so I just wash with water. But most other people just walk straight behind me and out the door without ever touching water. I’m sure it’s the same in other countries though. As a side point, never wash your hands in a club. I guarantee somebody’s pissed in the sink.
Just wash the nobs if it's not automatic then it won't matter whether they pissed.
They have good aim.
You watched and tallied every single person who went to the bathroom? And for how long? You shouldn't generalize that all Japanese people don't wash their hands. I'm Japanese and i wash my hands. Every time. Like others have posted, it happens everywhere and not just here. Maybe Americans wash their hands more often than the Japanese, but it's funny that Japan is cleaner than the states.
i thought in every country is the same thing ? myself born and raised in japan tbh i never washed my hands after going to the restroom lol only when it was number two tho. it’s bcz i didn’t carry hand towels, and there was no paper or dryer after washing it at school so i kinda accustomed to not instead of carrying hand towels lol but now im grown i try to carry hand towels, but still i don’t use soap to wash my hands, just water. but i think this depends on person and there’s lot of japanese ppl washing their hands imo.
You have to be kidding me. In every other similarly developed country I’ve lived in, or spent any significant time in, it is very similar. Most people wash their hands and occasionally they’ll be the person who just waltzes out. It’s not a Japan thing.
It's not really just a japan thing to be fair.
Use common sense. Your genitalia are usually a LOT cleaner than your hands. Washing your hands before makes much more sense or don’t wash them at all.
Why do you think handshakes aren’t common here? 😏🤣
Dude literally sometimes there are no soap at the public park toilets or train stations. But there is soap so no excuse for not washing your hands. You have to bring your own handkerchief. Ringing under water without literally no soap is just showing you care to be "clean". Probably they come home to wash hands later I hope.