Yes the streets are clean but I can’t understand anymore why it still seems to be so common that people don’t care about this very important part of hygiene. I don’t feel clean just because may I look it. I can’t afford to get a serious illness all because my hands weren’t clean after using a restroom and handling the dirtiest part of my body. I’ll carry my own soap and fling my hands around if there’s no towel so long as i know i am keeping my health safe- no excuses! I just….don’t understand and ponder why it’s not common knowledge or a great health concern. Japan certainly has high rates of gastrointestinal illnesses. Maybe hand washing got better after covid but did it really? I feel when I was first getting used to things like people being blunt about my appearance I would feel like the villain if i told them it was actually rude, but this feels the same almost. But this is safety and actual s**t we’re talking about and possibly putting other people at risk got serious illnesses. I don’t know why too little care seem to care too little about this.
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Is it a Japan problem? I think that a lot of people anywhere you go don’t take washing hands seriously.
Don’t know you but everyone around me washes hands quite often and uses the alcohol spray all the day
“Japan certainly has high rates of gastrointestinal illnesses.”
Source?
Yeah the “quickly rinse fingers with incoming toilet water after a big poop” thing always stumped me.
That and all the premade food (especially chicken and seafood) sitting on the shelves in supermarkets without chilling makes my stomach turn.
Where are you everyday that people aren’t washing their hands? O_o
Sorry but this kind of stuff should go into the stupid questions or rant posts… yes, I’m grossed out by seeing the salaryman peeing next to me not even bother to wash his hands, but this isn’t even a “Japan thing”. You would be very shocked to hear how many humans statistically on this planet do not wash their hands properly or regularly.
Let’s be glad you can refuse a handshake here and it’s not a big deal. You can kinda get away with it in many Western countries now thanks to Covid but even in high level business meetings you’ll always have the (sorry just my anecdotal experience!) Covid-doubting American executive who thinks it’s not a big deal, go give that hand a thorough shake! “It says a lot about a man “ blabla
Been in the US, and yes, at times people don’t, but it’s far more common. Just personal observation of course.
In Japan, I have never seen it. Or very rarely anyway. The splash of water method.
Also, just because other places also don’t it, as pointed out, of course, doesn’t make the post irrelevant. Japan seems to be so clean and yet…
Don’t know about it being a Japan thing specifically, but yeah a lot of people don’t wash their hands. Sometimes I just wonder if it was me that is weird for washing my hands rather religiously (touching even just the garbage bag, or touching the kitchen sink would already warrant me washing hands). As a result I don’t get infections that are spread by touch.
On the other hand, my wife gets a lots of gastrointestinal issues (she completely has no issue with not washing hands if one touches a toilet seat)… yet she somehow attributes it to me being from a third world country and having an iron stomach. Lol no I just wash my hands.
Was working at a place. My boss said to some students, “wash your hands.” Then she demonstrated by extending her right hand, her palm facing to the left, and wiggled her fingers. I was absolutely disgusted by it. This was probably 5 years ago?
Do lots of people not wash their hands everywhere? Yeah. Doesn’t make it any less disgusting here.
Obsessive cleanliness disorder is the term for people who are obsessed with hand washing and other forms of cleaning.
Because water alone will remove most of the bacteria from your hands. *Assuming you actually rub your hands abit and not just just splash a little water on it and rush out the bathroom*
If it’s really fucking filthy, like after wiping your ass and you miss a little, I would definitely use soap.
I come from a European country, where I never witnessed someone not washing their hands.
Here in Japan, it’s like 80% don’t wash their hands properly. From my point of view, I can’t say it’s not a Japan problem. At least it is “also a Japan” problem.
Generally I think especially in Tokyo, people are more interested in managing their image, including faking having a moral compass, than what kind of person they really want to be. Feels like Facebook-ii-nee culture came to life. And since noone talks about what Tanaka not did in the toilette, noone gives a flying f.
We?
It’s not like Japan is the only place in the world where people don’t wash their hands, but it’s an oddly incongruous habit compared with how many people who skip the hand-washing would happily look down on non-Japanese countries as dirty.
It doesn’t bother me too much except for when I have to take a long train ride and end up tired and hanging on to those straps. Because I can bet pretty good odds whoever held onto it before me handled their junk and then sprinkled some water on their fingertips, if they did anything at all.
Wait until you hear about the “five second rule.”
Almost every time I use the men’s public toilet, every urinal has a splash of pee at the base. Pretty sure washing three fingers on one hand isn’t going to wash away all the urine particle splashes off their hands. Gross.
It’s a good thing hand shake greeting isn’t a thing here. Gotta bring your own hand gel sanitizer; just protect yourself.
You also aren’t supposed to dip the Kushi in the tare more than once.
You touch things far dirtier than bathroom door handles and your junk multiple times throughout the day and don’t stop to wash your hands. Some research has even shown that trace amounts of nasty stuff is actually good training for your immune system (especially in children), and our obsession with cleanliness (particularly antibacterial soap) might actually be worse overall for our health, and part of the increase in serious allergies, weakness to common cold, heightened virility of certain diseases, etc.
If you’ve been compulsive about cleanliness for a long time, you probably don’t wanna stop now as you’ll probably get sick frequently, but if you’ve been nasty your whole life and rarely get sick, rock on cowboy!
i’ll never forget when i went to a station bathroom without a mask on (well after the govt announcement) and this old lady left the stall and gave me the nastiest look while walking right past the sink without a glance lol
In the women restrooms, be it here or back home, I’ve always seen the women around me washing their hands. Part of it is due to hygiene reasons, but I think most of it is due to the fact that we need to retouch our makeup, we cannot afford to touch our face with unclean hands since we’re scared of the germs causing acne, etc.
My hypothesis. Because people in Japan wash their hands before they eat (they all have wet wipes and towells) they don’t see the need to “wash” especially after peeing and consider the washing facilities in a public toilet a bigger health risk. (There is a perception that it’s easier to get dirty hands using washing facilities).
It’s just a hypothesis.
To be honest, hygiene is heavily ritualised globally, and not washing your hands after pissing isn’t going to make you sick from eating lunch.
Gross I know but medically you’re not gonna get sick that way. It’s a ritual that many people here care less about than others.
Used to frequent a cafe inside the lobby of a nearby hospital. It totally shocked me how many staff members (doctors, nurse, maintenance) would not wash their hands after using the toilet. There were times when, while washing my own hands, I’d calmly ask the guy in the doctor’s coat to wash his hands after he’d finished checking his hair in the mirror (following using a toilet/urinal) and was making to leave.
To their credit, they’d often chuckle and take it in their strides. Some even used soap.
When I saw one of the cafe staff evade the sink entirely after exiting a cubicle, I decide to buy my coffee and sandwich elsewhere.
This always bothers me here in Japan, even after the guy takes a fat dump, he just briefly touches the fingertips in the water, as if the water is acid or some shit. I asked some female friends and apparently the girls are not so different as well. Japanese people just refuse to wash their hands with soap.
These kind of post shows OPs xenophobia more than anything else
It’s a pretty well documented thing that people tend not to do. Hospitals all around the world spend a huge amount of money reminding and ensuring doctors and nurses to wash their hands consistently. And doctors and nurses are of course people who generally understand really well how diseases spread, and that not washing your hands after going to the bathroom is a really big contributor to disease and things like that, and yet it still is really hard to make people consistently 100% wash their hands after going to the bathroom. I think rather than railing against this aspect of humanity that for whatever reason you don’t struggle with or that you put more priority on and other people, it would be better to just try to understand how we could make it easier for people to remember to wash their hands or some thing that people put more priority on or things like that. Given the public health efforts have been trying to do this for decades, or possibly even centuries, if you have a novel idea I’m sure many people would love to hear it. Good luck out there.
For everyone constantly coming into these posts saying “it’s not just a Japan problem” … are y’all lost or something??? This is Japan life, it’s literally about what people notice IN JAPAN.
As for hand washing, I’m with OP. Shocking how few people I witness washing their hands before leaving the washroom compared to my home country. If it doesn’t seem like a big difference to you, I feel bad for y’all that poor hygiene is your norm.
Are you guys all men? Cuz I really can confidently tell almost 98% of girls that I saw washed their hands
WTF are you talking about?
Japanese Washes hands everytime when they go to bathroom.
I mean who doesn’t ?
Lurk in the restrooms and make a tally. Good luck!