What is it with Japanese men and not washing their hands?

21 comments

1. What is it with the obsession over Japanese men and hand washing?

2. Don’t worry men are this gross everywhere.

3. What is it with foreigners in Japan making blanket statements about millions of people from their very limited observations?

4. I always see japanese men wash their hands at public toilets?

5. I am from the US and I also see a lot of American men not washing their hands

6. I think this idea stems from the abundance of public bathrooms in Japan. In other countries people just don’t see how men don’t wash their hands.

7. You should see Europe for this type of stuff.

8. There are a lot of public restrooms in Japan that don’t have soap dispensers and a lot of them also don’t have hand towels or hand dryers, so the only option is to just rinse your hands with water or not do anything at all. I think that may be a reason why some men are in the habit of just rinsing. I once asked my husband why he just rinsed his hands instead of using soap and he said, 死なないだから.

9. I always wash my hands but I don’t use soap unless the dispenser is automatic (the ones were you don’t need to touch anything) because I’ll feel even more dirtier. A lot of the public bathrooms don’t have soap in the first place, though.

10. Why do men not wash their hands? Fixed it for you.

11. Are you in Japan watching to see if the Japanese wash their hands?
    Enjoy your trip more.

12. Ummmm yeah. All races have people that don’t wash their hands.

    It shouldn’t be “What’s up with Japanese men who don’t wash their hands?”

    It should be “What’s up with people who don’t wash their hands?”

    Pro tip:

    If you see someone that does not wash their hands in the mens room after peeing but you see them checking their hair in the mirror by the sink afterwards, walk up to them, breathe lightly down the nape of their neck to show that you are not a threat, smell their hair, then sensually grab their hands and start slowly and gently washing their hands for them with lukewarm soapy water while looking them straight in the eye without blinking.

13. Is this an automated post that gets posted every 2 weeks?

14. Can we just make this some kind of sticky (no pun intended) since it seems to come up like once a month. We get it. You’re superior in your handwashing ethic. Now, go play around with your phone, keyboard, door handles, and all the other stuff completely covered in nastiness without worrying about your hand sanitation and go about your day. I guess you never put someone’s genitals in your mouth either?

15. You might be onto something here.

    Hmm you should bring a notebook and a pencil and record time, date, location, and approximate age.

    After you proceed to do this in various locations throughout Japan you can try another country and then post your results.

    We can finally put this issue to bed thanks to your wonderful bathroom observational abilities of other people.

16. I think you mean “men”
    Men’s rooms in train stations at 11pm on a Saturday look and smell like something died.

17. Why are all the comments bashing OP? Plenty of people have made a post like this which shows that it is in fact a common phenomenon many have witnessed over the years and in different parts of the country. Obviously, OP doesn’t mean every single Japanese man, but has probably noticed a significant number of men not washing their hands.

    I’ve also seen many women not washing their hands at all or just wetting them. I’m sure there are Japanese people out there who wash their hands very well because everyone is different but you can’t deny that it is a common occurrence here to see people not wash their hands in public restrooms. And it’s really gross, that’s how diseases and germs spread. Everybody should be washing their hands for 30 seconds minimum with soap and water.

18. I have seen about 70% of people wash their hands which is not different from American when I lived America. Not washing hands is hardly unique to Japan.

    The difference is probably people just wetting finger tip is much more common in Japan, but they are like 5-10%.

    Also pretty much everyone wash their hands in our workplace because restroom is clean and water is hot. So it depends on circumstance as well.

19. I dont think its just japan OP

20. I mean they don’t have too, everyone bows in Japan right?? /s
    Jokes aside, men are gross everywhere it turns out. Who knew?

21. A very old joke goes; A Harvard man and a Yale man are using the bathroom. They both finish and on the way out the Yale man sniffs arrogantly and says, “In Yale they teach to wash our hands afterwards.” To which the Harvard man replies, “At Harvard they teach not to piss on ourselves.”