The future of urine enforcement.

The Greater Tokyo Area has been dealing with a pressing crime problem for nearly a decade now. People have been smashing public toilets in city parks at an alarming rate. In Hikarigaoka Park alone, 85 toilets are said to have been broken since March of 2014, totaling roughly 10 million yen (US$92,000) in damages.

Now the metropolitan government has had enough, and is fighting back by commissioning a line of cast iron urinals that can repel most human-powered attacks.

Your move, creeps. (Cue the music please)

The task of creating these indestructible potties fell on the Saitama branch of nationwide ironworks Ito Tekko. They’ve been known to provide iron fencing for the Tokyo Park Association, so one of its members asked if they could make a strong toilet too.

A full toilet is very difficult to forge from iron, so they started with the simpler design of a urinal instead. However, even making a urinal was much more challenging than expected. Ito Tekko had to consider things like stream angles and minimizing splash-back in its design while also not infringing on other designs’ copyrights.

Still, they persevered and created one heck of a strong urinal. In the demonstration video we can see it withstand the impact of a 7.5 kilogram (16.5 pound) iron ball.

They also say that it will be impossible to destroy these urinals without the aid of power tools. However, their strength is only the tip of the urinal cake. These iron urinals are thinner and lighter than porcelain models and can also be easily colored to match any public restroom decor.

The only downside is that these urinals cost about 50 percent more to produce. On the other hand, considering their durability, that added cost would probably be made up for in the long run.

People in Japan were conflicted, feeling both pride in the quality engineering of these urine collectors as well as shame that it has come to this.

“I know people who like to smash toilets won’t agree, but I think these are great toilets.”

“I had no idea so many toilets were getting broken.”

“I think we should deal with the underlying issues of toilet smashing first.”

“They don’t look so strong. These no security against guys with wandering eyes.”

“This is Japanese manufacturing!”

“Bragging about having the strongest toilet in an area full of toilet smashers seems like asking for trouble.”

“Why break a toilet?”

It’s certainly sad that there are people ought there so distraught and confused that they need to take out their frustrations on innocent toilets. Nevertheless, urine knows not such sympathy and practical action needs to be taken quickly while we search for the causes of toilet abuse.

▼ Only a sick individual would look at these and want to break them rather than pee all over them.

Four iron urinals have already been installed in Komazawa Olympic Park in Setagaya, Tokyo and another single unit can be found in Yanaka Cemetary in Taito, Tokyo. More installations are also expected after these urinals won the coveted Japan Foundry Engineering Society “Casting of the Year” award.

That still leaves a lot of vulnerable toilets around Japan though, so we as a people need to pitch in and do our part to serve and protect restrooms too. Whenever a loved one looks on the verge of smashing a urinal, please intervene and refer them to a nearby rage room or do some ninja hand gestures together instead.

Together we can make a difference.

Source: Asahi Shimbun, Hachima Kiko

Images: Pakutaso 1, 2

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