The Tokyo Toilet

The Tokyo Toilet is an urban redevelopment project in Shibuya, Tokyo conceived by entrepreneur Koji Yanai, of Uniqlo and Fast Retailing, and funded by the Nippon Foundation. It involves the construction of modern high-quality public restrooms, with the aim of encouraging their use and consequently the use of the public spaces they serve, such as parks and other common areas. The project includes 17 structures designed by 16 architects.

Buildings
The Tokyo Toilet is an urban redevelopment project in Shibuya, Tokyo conceived by entrepreneur Koji Yanai, of Uniqlo and Fast Retailing, and funded by the Nippon Foundation. It involves the construction of modern high-quality public restrooms, with the aim of encouraging their use and consequently the use of the public spaces they serve, such as parks and other common areas. As of January 2024, the project includes 17 structures, the first of which opened on August 5, 2020.

All toilets are located in Shibuya, distributed across the area spanning the neighborhoods of Hatagaya, Yoyogi and Ebisu. They were built to replace previous inadequate structures in terms of space, accessibility or preservation. The buildings were commissioned from 2018 to renowned international architects, who created "distinctive aesthetic" buildings that are "as much art as public utility". The toilets were built for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic the games were postponed and there were almost no tourists.

Seventeen toilets were built by sixteen architects, among them Pritzker Prize winners Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban and Kengo Kuma.

Film


To further promote the project, Koji Yanai invited screenwriter Takuma Takasaki, who suggested to make a film and invite a star director - Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg. Wim Wenders was also in the list, and Yanai invited him to Japan. Wenders had an interest in Japan before, and filmed several films there in 1980s. Yanai suggested to produce a series of short films, but Wenders decided to make a full-length movie. Perfect Days premiered in 2023. Koji Yakusho starred in the main role of a toilet cleaner, and won Yakusho "the best actor" prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Following the theatrical release of Perfect Days in international markets, interest in Japanese public facilities, particularly those of the Tokyo Toilet Project in Shibuya, has surged.