Public Restrooms in Japan

Where can one go to use a public restroom for free in Japan?

When I went to Italy the public bathrooms I went to you had to pay 1 euro or buy something from a restaurant.

Hopefully free public bathrooms are a common thing in Japan.

Here in America any gas station, fast food, grocery store, starbucks just to know a few have free toilets and can easily be found

Everywhere...

Actually, this is just one more reason why Japan is awesome. Public toilets in Japan are free and available in many places. Convenience stores and department stores all have toilets available for use by anyone, as well as public toilets in stations and other places. Here in the UK, if you get caught short while out in town, it's usually hard to find somewhere to pop in for a quick pee but in Japan, it's never an issue. Added to which, the toilets in Japan are usually spotlessly clean, something that cannot be said for public toilets in the UK.

Japan is heaven on earth regarding toilets.

There are even new designer toilets in Tokyo:
https://tokyotoilet.jp/en/

And a Toilet museum in Kyushu:
https://jp.toto.com/museum/en/

Generally public toilets are free and widely available. Apart from shopping malls, conbinis, department stores and train stations and other great place to find toilets are temples/Shrines and children�fs playgrounds.

Toilet quality reaches from luxurious to basic squat toilets.

You can find free toilets in department stores and malls (they were very modern, spotless, and usually had music going on when I went there). However, I did find a free toilet in a alley in Kyoto and it was horrid and dirty (it was the first public dirty toilet that I've seen in Japan/it was not modern, it was the traditional Japanese style toilet). I began to go only to toilets in department stores and malls.

The only place I've seen paid toilets is Kamikochi.

People don't tend to just use one in a restaurant if they are not eating there because there are so many public toilets in other locations like train stations, department stores, shopping centers, parks, temples, shrines, Starbucks, etc.

I'm glad to hear this. I already know I'm going to love Japan and thus is one of the reasons haha

That's the 1 thing I hated about Italy is that public toilets weren't common (unless I did it wrong) and if it was public you had to pay like at some train stations.

I remember being in Milan and there's a McDonald's by the Duomo and the bathroom line was crazy because it was free

There's always big lines for toilets at McDonalds (I experienced that in Lisbon, Portugal and in Toledo, Spain).

In Portugal, you have to pay to go to the toilets in Train Stations and Bus Stations. However, toilets are free in department stores, shopping malls, and supermarkets. Of course they are free in restaurants and cafes too, but it would be odd to go to the toilet without eating/pay for something.

I think its the same in Italy too. In fact, I don't remember much about toilets when I went to Italy (I usually avoid going to public toilets while abroad, but there are exceptions of course). Most of the times, I use the restaurant toilet at lunch to relieve myself during a day trip.

But don't worry. You won't find any problem in Japan. If you have some uncertainties, just search for shopping malls for each location you will be going as a precaution, then if you feel the need to go to the toilet, you will know exactly where to go.

As mentioned above, there are many places. My personal pick would be the ones inside train stations (usually cleanest) and also convenience stores (usually clean, but not always). There are a surprisingly large number of public toilets around (free), but sometimes it helps to know where they are if you are not in a touristy spot, near a combini or department store/mall.
One thing that has helped me on occasion is knowing Japan has many small local parks, and these also often have a basic/rudimentary toilet - still superior to many other countries, but not always the greatest. (and curiously, some temples/shrines also have good facilities).

One thing to bear in mind is that toilets in Japan often do not have hand dryers and very unlikely to have hand towels. Many people carry a cloth specifically for drying their hands. Also, carrying a packet of tissues can be a wise move (from a combini or from someone on the street handing them out for advertising.)

Karuizawa has mainly paid toilets in the shopping street. Unfortunately the sobacha (buckwheat tea) that the region is famous for is not only delicious but makes you pee like a horse, so go prepared with coins.

Japan has many toilet which is free of charge, there are also many which you can pay to use which are better quality, which ever one you choose even the worst one in japan is probably better than those available in other countries.

If you have ANY worries about bathroom facilities, Japan is the best place in the world for you.

Heck, just the bathroom experience alone is justification enough for a trip to Japan.

There is one potential problem, though: once you have been to Japan, "doing your business" anywhere else in the world will leave you...um, disappointed. Once you get home from Japan you are going to want to remodel your home bathroom(s) with quality Toto products. Trust me on this. After a few visits to Japan, at our house, we re-did both of our bathrooms. Not cheap, but the best home improvement project EVER. Popping in to the loo at our house is now like taking a quick trip to Tokyo. We even have friends who now ask to come visit our house just to use the bathroom.

I'm not kidding about any of this. You'll see.

There are some gross public bathrooms in Japan. They're not all absolutely amazing 5 star experiences. I say this as someone who has had to use some nasty ones through the years. But many of the free public toilets in Japan are great. I'd specifically like to give a shout out to the women's public restroom in Tokyo Station on the Yaesu side near Keiyo Street. I'd also like to give a shout out to the Takshimaya in Nihombashi. I've used theirs multiple times because it has a Pokemon Center and Pokemon Cafe within one of its buildings and my 10 year old loves Pokemon. Both were free and much nicer than the paid ones at Kamikochi, but when you have to go, you have to go, so paid is not necessarily better or cleaner. I find sometimes toilets at department stores near major train stations *cough* Ikebukuro *cough* can have long lines for their toilets in their basement levels, so I just go to a higher floor like 4 or 5, where the lines are shorter and the toilets just as nice or nicer.

Thank you on the info at Karuizawa, because we are going to make it there at some point.

Yeah I've had some gross experiences too. Bathrooms in the rooms of some nice Japanese hotels are definitely fantastic, but if we're talking about public toilets that you can use when you are out and about I would say that they are *fine*. My experiences certainly aren't reflected in Jo Mama's post above, and I think that after reading that most people would be disappointed to find that most public toilets in Japan are just normal public toilets that are sometimes equipped with a bidet, which is nice, but compared to European and American ones probably less likely to have at least one of either toilet paper/hand soap/dryers, which is not so nice if you're not experienced enough with travelling around Japan to know that carrying those things around with you is smart. But at least they are fairly numerous. It's definitely easier to find somewhere than in say, London.

I just found an app for locating public bathrooms so that should help too. Thank you all for telling me your experience on finding public toilets in Japan.

There is a mall in Kurashiki station where the toilets are spotless. Really nice. I also found good ones in Okayama. As for bad /dirty toilets, I only had one experience as I pointed out in my previous post (it was near the Geisha district in Kyoto and it was horrid, I could not even pee). So I guess, you will find both good and bad toilets, but yes, in Japan, you will find 80% clean toilets versus 20% dirty toilets, which makes Japan one of the best countries in public toilets management.

The answer to the OP's question is "anywhere".

As for cleanness, the Japanese are educated to clean up after you use something. Even at school, students are assigned to clean the school restrooms that they use.

So, you're expected to use public restrooms neatly and wipe off any dirt you left behind, as a courtesy to the next user. That's why paid cleaning people aren't really necessary.

In other words, apart from hotels, stores and restaurants where workers tend to clean the restrooms from time to time, it's pretty much up to the user to keep it clean. And not every "next user" is lucky enough.

Wow. I am shocked that you have pay to use public restrooms in some European countries like Italy and UK. Not even a poorer country like Vietnam charges you to use toilet...