I found this article on the NHK news site and it made laugh because it’s one of those things that did really bug me — totally shocked me when I first came here — but I’m used to it, so I don’t really notice any more. I thought it’d be fun to talk about here.
Do you have any funny stories or opinions on it?
[Here’s the article, if you wanna read it.](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20220701/k10013696731000.html)
37 comments
One time my locker key malfunctioned at the bath house so I called the lady over who was mopping the men’s room. So we squat down trying every which way to open it mind you I am completely naked. I suddenly realize how awkward this was so immediately stood up and away while she got someone else.
This is also extremely common in my home country so I didn’t even notice it.
It used to bother me but now I just expect it
What I find more weird is that they’re all 4 feet tall in my area
I don’t mind it they are just doing a job
It’s always some 50+ year old woman in the places I go to. Maybe she seen enough to not care at that point.
I don’t care. I respect the work they do of course but they are like air to me, even if they are relatively young
One time I was at an onsen in an inaka. I was changing my clothes to have a quick shower before going in and I was completely naked, as well as others.
This sweet but mean looking old lady comes in casually mopping and cleaning. It was my first time and I was shocked lol.
yeah FOR ME is totally weird that woman staff goes to clean men bathrooms. I also find weird this when you go to onsen, there are a bunch of naked men in the dressing room or in the pools and women enters to clean, check temperature, etc. Also in onsens it is kinda common that ppl brings their daughters to male onsen with other naked men.
Seems it is normal for jp ppl, for me is kinda weird.
FIERRO!
I have yet to become comfortable with male cleaners in all the train station ladies’ rooms. I want to be chill, but it’s disconcerting to walk directly from a space where “痴漢は犯罪です” is blaring repeatedly on the loudspeakers into a tiny women’s bathroom with a man inside.
I find it uncomfortable, sure. But more serious in my mind is the fact that so many toilets in so many places have the urinals exposed so that people outside the toilet area can literally see you as you use them. I just don’t get why they’re so often designed so stupidly, without partitions or a wall for privacy. Who wants to see someone taking a piss, or be seen by passersby as they do it?
Although I get why men would be like ‘if you don’t do it to women don’t do it to men’ it’s a little dishonest to not acknowledge that it is not that simple. A woman in the men’s bathroom might embarrass men, but a man in the women’s bathroom **scares** women and those are very different things. And combined with the business perspective of having to employ two separate people to clean the men’s and women’s bathrooms/sento…
Some years ago me and my friends stayed at an Osaka Men Only (I think it was men only) Capsule Hotel. It was a pretty good one, and no, it wasn’t “adult” (but they had the funny TV channels).
Anyway, we went to the sentou, and, yeah, a couple women staff there (also men staff) taking care of towels and cleaning the floor. My friend was hiding his little buddy in embarrassment and I told him “these women have probably seen more little johnnys than you’ll ever see in your life, and surprise, they don’t care, as you shouldn’t… it’s just male genitalia”
Japan’s onsen culture changed me, I stopped having issues being naked in a bath next to other people. We’re all humans after all.
The person quoted in this article sounds totally ignorant. The reason it’s accepted for a woman to enter a mens bathroom or onsen and clean, but not the other way around is because women don’t assault men en mass. If women frequently assaulted men in spaces like this then it would also be taboo, but that’s not how the world is. Men might feel “shy” when it happens but if a man was cleaning the women’s onsen it wouldn’t be “shyness” the women would be feeling, it would be FEAR. They are not equivalent issues at all. You’re not scared the 70 year old woman is going to assault you.
For the record I work in a capsule hotel type place and the male and female cleaning staff enter every floor (we have mixed sex floors and womens only floors) the male staff also enter the womens toilets or shower area to clean, and we have signs warning customers of this, so it isn’t like men NEVER clean women a bathrooms or whatever here. It’s not always possible to have enough staff to do so, sometimes only male staff are scheduled for a certain shift.
At a traditional 銭湯、whoever sits at 番台 can see both of men’s and women’s changing rooms.
Japan has weird public toilets. On top of female cleaning staff in men’s bathroom, they also build those aforementioned men’s bathrooms very open to the outsider’s view. Sometimes passing by public bathrooms you can see men standing in front of the urinals. Even though you cannot see the genitalia, it still bugs me how exposed men are while urinating.
I used one public bathroom in Okinawa once. First of all, the entrance to mens bathroom was gigantic and it didn’t have a door, so you could see everything and everyone inside. Also all urinals were directly opposite to the womens bathroom entrance so women could see men lined up while urinating. On top of that, the bathroom was by the sidewalk of a relatively big street. There was big ass window with the sidewalk view right at the chest level on the wall the urinals were located. That window didn’t have actual windows though, so it was just a huge opening thru the wall. So pretty much while urinating you would look directly to that sidewalk outside of the bathroom, and see everyone passing by, who could see you too. Hell you could even high five a random person if wanted
A lot of these women are probably mothers, they’ve seen and cleaned everything needs to be seen and cleaned. It doesn’t bother me, but I should stop ‘helicoptering’ the last few drops out with my hands on my hips.
Can’t say that I’m bothered by it. They’re just doing their job.
What I find a lot more inconveniencing, is the fact that a lot of public baby feeding areas are women only. What am I supposed to do when I’m out with my baby alone? Not feed him?
Relevant The Oatmeal comic:
https://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences2/locker_room
It took me a very long time to be able to take a piss with a female present in the public toilets. I know it’s childish, but I just couldn’t do it. Now, I’m fine.
Only one time have I seen a female cleaner in the onsen. That was shocking in itself considering I was starkers.
Now, I think nothing of it.
The first time for me I was at a natural, but indoor onsen. Brown, rust colored water that messed up my wife’s female situation. The cleaning lady, an obaasan, just shuffled through the mens shower, not doing much since the place was so clean already. Reminded me of a scene out of Monty Python. Her blasé attitude towards her environment was so plain it was funny.
Toilet I can understand. Baths/lockerrooms where people regularly get naked, I think it’s wrong. Am I used to it? I guess so? But I will always cover myself and wait for them to pass before I get comfortable again.
I have to clean the men’s toilets at my part time job and it makes me feel really anxious. Hell, in the US I’m used to no one being allowed in the restroom while it’s being cleaned so I feel annoyed that I can’t just get in, clean and get out in a timely manner. I could clean the entire restroom so quickly if people weren’t constantly going in and out of the stalls! Can’t clean the damn things if I can’t get in /rant
At the sento I go to there’s a young-ish female worker, probably mid to late 30s, who comes into the men’s bath quite often. Literally no one cares, so why should I.
This is common in not just Japan but all of east Asia
The only time I really felt uncomfortable was when the lady started to clean the urinal I was currently occupying.
She started to clean the top and went down the sides with her towels, moved around to the other side, and did that side too, but didn’t do the inside.
Once I started to process what was going on I was sure that I must be on a hidden camera show and, while I had finished, I was not sure whether I should continue to finish up or wait for her to go onto the next urinal (I just stood there and waited)
In Australia, male cleaners just loudly announce that they’re coming in to the women’s toilets. I guess it doesn’t really matter because it’s all stalls. I can imagine it being awkward if people were doing something naked though.
They’re just doing a job. It’s more normal here, but I’ve seen the men’s toilets being cleaned by women in other countries. As for men cleaning the women’s washrooms, onsen, etc., that’s a no-no because men assault women more often than the other way around.
I’m just wondering old dude gets to clean the ladies room.
Occasionally it’s a bit embarrassing at work when I let loose a rank-smelling monstrosity of a turd and then there’s a female cleaner waiting to go in and clean. Don’t feel embarrassed if it’s a male cleaner for some reason.
I’m a bloke, and back in my home country, I remember walking into the public toilets and seeing a sign warning that male staff may sometimes come in to clean. Odd, I thought. Then it dawned on me: I’d mistakenly stumbled into the women’s room.
Yeah, I’m mostly cool with it, but this kid was saying the female staff came to the spot he was soaping up and refilled the dispenser right next to him. That’s a bit much. If a woman is cleaning the floor, whatever. But I don’t want her to be close enough to smell her breakfast. If I can accidentally splash you while lathering, you need to back up.
When in Rome, baby
Doesn’t really bother me to be honest. Some cleaning women saw my wee wee while I was changing after using the onsen. So what.
Before I lived in Japan I lived in Eastern Europe and it was common practice there for women to clean and manage public toilets (such as at railway stations) so there would always be a women sitting behind a desk at the entrance to the mens’ and womens’ toilets. It took me a while to get out of the habit of always carrying around some change and toilet paper.
I am continuously grateful to live in a country where most public toilets aren’t covered in piss, shit, needles, cigarette butts, and other varieties of garbage.
Seriously, I am very grateful to the small army of people that keep them clean, regardless of gender.
I’ve told this story before here:
Having lived in Japan a long time (15 years or so) I’ve had less and less “WTF, Japan!” moments and just become acculturated to most stuff, women cleaning staff in the men’s restroom included. But a couple of years back we went to the movies with the family and I went to take a piss before the movie started. Old 80-something obaachan is the only other person in there, quietly mopping the floor. Didn’t think anything of it and headed to the urinal and got down to business. Was looking straight down and was vaguely aware of her mopping somewhere behind me, but my jaw absolutely dropped when I saw her mop swish right between my shoes while I was still mid-stream. I quickly looked over my shoulder at her, but she was looking down at the floor and continued mopping around the remaining urinals like I just wasn’t there. She had a job to do and some gaijin using the urinal wasn’t going to stop her from doing it! I was stunned. To be honest, it was kind of refreshing after so much time to have such a huge “WTF” moment in Japan again.
Women used to come into the men’s locker room and clean it at the sports club I used to belong to. I felt really uncomfortable about it in the beginning but I got used to it. One time I went to the men’s restroom in a restaurant after we ordered and while I was standing at the urinal this really old woman suddenly walked in and went to one of the toilets. If you ever go on a trip into the countryside it’s not unusual to find public restrooms in parks and small ferry terminals that have no doors. Anyone walking by can see in.