Only an average of 35.8% of toilets at prefectural high schools in Japan were Western-style, a survey showed Monday, reflecting a lack of state subsidies and low priority given to modernizing toilets built mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. The proportion of Western-style toilets for prefectural high
Only an average of 35.8% of toilets at prefectural high schools in Japan were Western-style, a survey showed Monday, reflecting a lack of state subsidies and low priority given to modernizing toilets built mainly in the 1960s and 1970s.
The proportion of Western-style toilets for prefectural high schools was lower than that for public elementary and junior high schools, which stood at 43.3% in an education ministry survey released in November last year.
Of around 225,000 toilets at roughly 3,200 prefectural high schools in Japan, about 80,000 were sitting toilets, while 145,000 were squat toilets as of April 1, according to a survey by a group of national and local lawmakers promoting the installation of Western-style toilets at schools. The survey covered all prefectures except Miyagi.
Advocates are urging schools to quickly modernize toilets as many students use sitting types at home and are not used to squat toilets, as well as to facilitate the use by elderly and handicapped people when accommodating them in time of disasters as evacuation centers.
