Go Piss, Girl: The plight of the public potty

The discussion centers on public restrooms, with several commenters lauding Japan as a model: they described ubiquitous, clean, free facilities at stations and stores and argued that such infrastructure feels liberating (nervai, atoav). Supporters credited civic norms, enforcement, long-term investment and consistent signage for Japan’s success, while others noted trade-offs such as strict drug enforcement or cultural downsides (shoobiedoo, pembrook, user43928). Some pushed back on tying good public services to ethnic homogeneity or xenophobia, calling that line of argument a dog whistle and pointing to multiethnic places like Singapore to rebut simplistic claims (JimDabell).

Others stressed supply-side realities: building and maintaining restrooms costs money and requires security and janitorial enforcement (bell-cot, squidbeak). Several commenters argued that culture and enforcement matter more than raw wealth - small minorities who vandalize or misuse facilities can ruin them for everyone (xdennis, squidmaster). A cluster of voices said society could afford toilets but prioritizes subsidies for corporations and military spending instead (atoav, forgotusername6, squidbeak), while others warned of entitlement and freeloading problems if users won’t reciprocate with funding or civic norms (sublinear, troupo). The debate split between those who see funding and political will as the fix and those who see cultural enforcement and choice-of-tradeoffs as the real constraint.