TOKYO, Japan — Japanese toilet giant TOTO has launched a service allowing those caught short in public to locate the nearest washrooms and see how busy they are real-time with a phone and QR code.
Japan, like other countries, struggles with managing long queues outside public toilets, particularly for women, in its teeming train stations and other places.
The system launched this month by TOTO — famous for its water-spraying, musical toilets — links consumers up with existing internet-connected facility management systems.
This was developed to automatically notify facility staff if a particular cubicle is dirty or occupied for an unusually long time.
Now users can scan a QR code with their phones to access a website showing restroom locations and live congestion levels.
"In addition, a QR code inside a restroom stall brings you to a website where a user can report problems, like being unable to flush or something broken," TOTO spokesman Tasuku Miyazaki told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.
The service is multi-lingual and available in English, Chinese and Korean.
The government is also trying to relieve the problem of long queues for women, with the transport ministry seeking extra funds in the budget for the coming fiscal next year.
These will be used to set up digital signage displays and movable toilet walls that can increase the number of stalls for women, according to local media.
Need a pee? Japan has QR code for that, This news data comes from:http://705-888.com
- Palace rejects China's 'troublemaker' tag
- One in four people lack access to safe drinking water – UN
- New Quezon City judge to oversee Dengvaxia vaccine cases, sets hearing
- New law lets foreigner investors lease land for 99 years
- 100K Pakistanis flee amid flood threat
- 25 countries suspend postal services to US over tariffs – UN
- Iran-backed Houthis raid UN offices in Yemen and detain at least 11 employees
- Putin vows not to back down in Ukraine
- India to cut taxes on hundreds of consumer goods to boost local demand following steep US tariffs
- Afghan quake death toll surges to over 2,200
