A startup in Nagoya has developed a tiny, portable toilet it has billed as one of the world's smallest and hopes will become an indispensable part of disaster kits across Japan.
Unlike disaster preparedness supplies such as emergency food, just 16.9 percent of households have some kind of emergency toilet ready, according to a 2018 survey by research group Japan Toilet Labo. Kokenawa Inc. aims to have the toilets, a kind of sturdy bag, change that.
The idea came to company head Yoshinori Kokenawa, 30, when he was volunteering in the central Japan city of Nagano in 2019, after Typhoon Hagibis caused the banks of the Chikuma River to burst.
There, he spotted a long line of people waiting to use a portable toilet. "Even though people were working as fast as they could to get the area back on its feet, they had to line up 30 minutes or more every time they used the bathroom. I wanted to do something about this," he said.
Toilets are among the concerns people cite when it comes to disaster evacuation facilities, and there are known cases of individuals falling ill after avoiding relieving themselves.
To raise the rate of emergency toilet ownership, the company aimed to create a lightweight, high-functioning product, and in December 2020, the Pocketoilet -- measuring 7 centimeters tall and 6.5 cm wide -- was devised. "They can fit even in a woman's makeup bag, so we hope people will carry them with ease," Kokenawa said.
To prepare the product, which is made with special fibers, users affix it to a toilet bowl or trash can and then fill it with a coagulant. Tests by the company have found that almost no odor emanates from one of the bags when left indoors with feces inside it for a week.
So far the company has sold about 50,000 Pocketoilets, and it also recently donated 6,000 of them to Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
Recently the company has turned its attention to matching those in need of support with those willing to give it.
To bring them together, it is building a system to provide as much as is needed of certain support items, and has also set up a website for people to register in advance items they can donate to Ukrainians evacuating to Japan, among other initiatives.
"Support for people affected by disasters has never been systemized like this before. If we can get the preparations together, it will be of use in future disasters," Kokenawa said.
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