Every now and then I come across signs where the English translation or explanation makes me smile and I feel I just have to take a photo to capture this cute side of living in Japan. Today I am sharing a recent addition to my collection.
I can see that the environmental awareness in Japan has changed a lot these past few years. When I moved to Japan eight years ago, I was given more plastic bags than I needed when grocery shopping. Today there is a fee for plastic bags and people are encouraged to use eco-bags when shopping. And seeing signs and notices urging people to think about the environment have become a normal part of life in Japan. With that as a background, had I not been in a public bathroom, seeing this sign would have made me laugh out loud and not content myself with a quite chuckle. Based on my limited Japanese knowledge, I can gather that even the Japanese meaning is a bit vague if not contradictory depending on your frame of reference, but seeing the explanation in English is really a piece of pure environmental protection comedy.
In order to protect the environment, we ask for your cooperation in using up all toilet paper.
Of course, the meaning seems to be that people are asked to use all paper on the roll before changing to a new paper roll, but just seeing the sign and where it was posted, that level of inference is a little more than should be required when going for a bathroom break. So I prefer to just take it literally and enjoy the image of striving to use up all toilet paper for the sake of the environment. But as a message to make me become aware of the issue it sure works – had it been a normal sign just asking people to not use too much toilet paper it would never have made any impression on me. And never ended up as a blog post a normal September day like this.