Keep your toilets spick and span in summer! 84% in Japan check cleanliness: survey

TOKYO — Keep your toilets clean, especially in summer because they tend to get dirty around this time of the year. Also, many of your guests will be checking if all that porcelain is as sparkly as it should be, according to the results of a survey by Japanese household cleaning products maker Lion Corp.

In Japan, summer is the time of year when we have more visitors to our homes, such as during the Obon holiday period in mid-August when people visit their family home. While it is a pleasure to see relatives and friends after a long time, and eat and drink together, many people must feel a pang of worry when someone asks to use the toilet. Will the guest notice the less-than-perfect state of cleanliness?

Some 84% of respondents to Lion’s survey said that they “tend to look for dirt and dust” in the restrooms of the homes they visit. When asked exactly where they check, with multiple answers allowed, the most common spot was “inside the toilet bowl,” chosen by 43.2%. This was followed by “toilet seat and lid” at 42.4%, “around the edge of the toilet bowl” at 42%, “hand washing area” at 27.6%, and “floor” at 26.8%.

Also, more than 60% of respondents said that they were either “often” or “sometimes” bothered by the toilet’s smell, confirming that many people are concerned about hygiene even at the homes of acquaintances and relatives.

Add to this the simple fact that toilets are hot in summer. Lion measured temperatures at six restrooms in five households in the Tokyo metropolitan area over a four-day period from July 5 to 8, when extreme heat was forecast. The company found that the temperature often exceeded 28 degrees Celsius during the daytime, and in some toilets, it was well over 30 C. The daily highs in Tokyo during the four days were all around 35 C, and some toilets were as hot as the outside temperature.

When asked which season makes cleaning toilets more tedious, summer ranked first at 37.4% in part due to the heat, and it was also the season when black stains were most likely to occur, selected by 45%. These results highlighted that people feel that cleaning toilets is more of a chore in summer, while at the same time stains are more likely to occur.

Kazumi Yoshii, Lion’s “living care meister,” advises, “If you have visitors, it’s a good idea to check for dirt from a different perspective than usual, with a ‘visitor’s-eye view’ in mind.”

The survey was conducted via the internet in June this year, targeting 500 people in their 20s to 60s who live with two or more people.

(Japanese original by Tatsuya Michinaga, Business News Department)