LETTER FROM TOKYO
Every morning, while walking her bulldog along the paths of Ueno Park in Tokyo, she uses large pliers to pick up cigarette butts and various small pieces of trash from the flowerbeds, which she stuffs into a plastic bag. When she discovers a wild flower, she bends down and, squatting, removes the twigs that could hinder its flowering with the same delicacy as a gardener. This walker, a retired teacher, does this work voluntarily. Sometimes she places a flower in a paper cup in the park restroom. “It’s more cheerful”, she says. Unexpected attention in any case.
The public amenities of Japanese cities are a surprise for the newcomer: innumerable and enviably clean – even those, quite rare, which are somewhat dilapidated – they are in stark contrast to the state of these places in Europe.
German filmmaker Wim Wenders shows the meticulous cleaning they undergo in his film released in France on November 29, Perfect Days, through the daily life of a public toilet cleaner in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. He accomplishes his routine and thankless task with the satisfaction that comes from any job well done. We ignore, here, the notion of a stupid profession: any human activity, even if it is not very rewarding, is a priori respectable – if we exclude professions subject to ancestral discrimination which still sneakily weighs on the descendants of those we call the “inhabitants of the hamlets” (burakumin) such as tanners, butchers… formerly considered as unclean beings.
Concern for hygiene taught from an early age
It is rare to look for public toilets in Tokyo and not find one. There are several categories: those of streets, parks and squares managed by the districts, those of train and metro stations – accessible even if they are located beyond the gates (just ask the attendant to let you pass) –, those of car parks, underground or surface shopping malls, supermarkets, office buildings, temples and sanctuaries. Usually indicated by signs, they are all available to anyone and free. Cleaning is generally carried out by private sector companies. Always impeccable, they are never vandalized. The same goes for train toilets.
The cleanliness of public toilets is part of what everyone in Japan has the right to expect from these places. It seems self-evident. It used to be said in the Archipelago that you judge someone by the cleanliness of their toilets. Children, Japanese men and women in primary and secondary schools, in the public as well as in the private sector, clean the toilets of their school – not as punishment but as a rotational participation in the maintenance of the establishment in the same way as washing windows or sweeping the classroom. This concern for hygiene taught from a very young age remains rooted in mentalities.
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