A school which is making schoolgirls clean their male classmates’ toilets barefoot and barehanded is arousing widespread disgust amongst Japanese, both for the humiliating nature of the practice and its complete diregard for hygiene, amidst accusations that a bizarre toilet-cleaning cult run by an elderly millionaire is actually trying to infiltrate the nation’s schools…

The news that another school, this time one in Hiroshima prefecture’s city of Miyoshi, is organising school cleaning which see schoolgirls set to polishing male toilets barefoot and without gloves in order to “polish their hearts through cleaning toilets” soon incited a storm of disgust online.

Schools in Japan commonly force children to act as unpaid cleaners, ostensibly as a way of inculcating a sense of communal responsibility (and also the mindless conformity which generally goes along with this), although going so far as to have children clean toilets with their bare-hands is unusual.

Even amongst Japanese such pointless humiliation of the younger generations is controversial, and even more so once some digging reveals just what is really going on:

“Messed up, Hiroshima.”

“Why are you lot so up in arms? Your hands are probably dirtier. Go and clean your own toilets!”

“The problem here is girls being made to clean the boys toilets.”

“This stuff is like a religion. What is the point of doing it barehanded and barefoot?”

“Maybe it is a good thing, but it may also destroy their health. I took a drink of water without washing my hands after cleaning my house’s drains, and I was bedridden for a week.”

“I’d complain if they made my kid do this. I don’t care if they call me a ‘monster parent.’ It hardly makes any difference whether they do it barehanded or barefoot, and will they take responsibility if someone with a cut on their hands or feets catches an infection? Stop these creepy educational practices, seriously.”

“So pointless. Pure self-satisfaction. They should use proper cleaning utensils.”

“Like some creepy religion, gross.”

“Unless the principal and all the staff were down there scrubbing with my kid I’d go in and shout them down.”

“Don’t they catch weird diseases doing this sort of thing?”

“Too creepy. People who support this sort of thing are nuts.”

“It’s almost like some sort of SM play. If they were told to lick them clean, I wonder if they’d actually notice?”

“The middle girl’s cute.”

“I don’t see them often as a long-time adult, but from what I’ve seen public school toilets are filthy. Back when I was a student it was like this, but to clean them the students just hosed them down a bit for a few minutes and it was nasty. At work we have a cleaner do it each day – I am grateful.”

“Poor kids.”

“Polishing their character is all very well, but is there any need to do it barehanded?”

“Those country bumpkin teachers are still harassing their kids with this stuff I see.”

“This is probably the work of some scato-sadist cult which loves making children miserable. Don’t send your kids to schools like this.”

“This is actually like some sort of religion or something – take a look on Google for “トイレ 倫理法人会”, there are groups promoting it in schools.”

“Totally a religion.”

“That place is holy ground for the teaching unions so it’s no surprise they get away with this stuff there.”

“It is absolute madness to force children to touch dirty toilets with their bare hands like this.”

“I feel strange urges seeing this.”

“Bare hands and feet – it’s the pre-war madness alright. Teachers who don’t feel anything wrong with forcing people to do this sort of thing are scary. It’s worse than forcing everyone to sing the anthem.”

“This is no different from the Imperial army’s antics during the war.”

“This sort of ‘self-development’ is solely designed to suppress individuality and make people into slaves.”

“Even Indians would be surprised at the kind of slave hierarchy we have in place.”

“This is a prefecture which makes kids kowtow to Korea on field trips there so it’s no surprise.”

“A company which did this to its employees would surely be sued. Even cleaners wouldn’t do it like this.”

“Hiroshima is really somewhere else different to the rest of Japan.”

“Overseas they don’t even make children clean schools.”

“From Okayama:”

“This is brainwashing.”

“This is just a way of destroying any self-respect these children have left so they can be brainwashed… and to think people make a fuss about putting on masks and washing hands during influenza outbreaks.”

“Unsanitary and inefficient.”

“Surely this is sexual harassment against the girls?”

“I’d never agree to do this. Or rather, I’d throw up and wouldn’t be able.”

“Learning to keep toilets clean is all very well, but doing it like this is utterly insane.”

“This is what they get up to in country schools.”

“Osaka’s governor supports this stuff. Maybe he was just paying lip service to it, but frankly even that is going too far for my tastes.”

“This must contravene Japanese work safety laws?”

“Baby boomers sacrificing young people to their disgustingly narcissistic ideals again.”

“And do the male students clean the female toilets?”

“Diseases communicable by contact with faeces:

Pharyngoconjunctival fever

Herpangina

Hand, foot and mouth disease

Gastronenteritis

Enterohemorrhagic E. coli

Echinococcus”





“Look it up – all this stuff is being promoted nationally and internationally by a toilet-cleaning cult group [the “Make Japan Beautiful Society,” which operates the “Learning Through Cleaning Society” responsible for promoting barehanded toilet rubbing and which even has a page devoted to the spiritual benefits of cleaning toilets] run by the old man [author of such classics as “Rules of Life I Learned Through Cleaning”] who founded the ‘Yellow Hat‘ car accessory chain. It’s a cult.”