Did you go to Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan?
My house is not far from the venue, so my
wife and I decided to visit the expo to make memories. At that time, my wife’s
younger sister, who lives in London, was temporarily staying at their parents’
house. She decided to come along, and the three of us went on an overnight
trip.
I was so happy that I saw a full-scale Mobile
Suit Gundam. That is my all-time favorite animation. My wife and my
sister-in-law are not familiar with Gundam. They didn’t say anything about it.
That was summer, and Japan was experiencing
the worst heat wave. But when we visited the expo, it was not blazing hot. Many
people visited the site, and the venue was packed. We had to wait for over an
hour to enter the venue and another hour to leave it.
But I think the biggest problem was the
women’s restrooms. In the venue, many women formed significantly long lines in
front of all the ladies’ restrooms. By contrast, no lines were observed in
front of the men’s restrooms. The women had to queue for a long time in the
restrooms. Being a woman is challenging. If you feel the need to urinate, you
have to wait for a long time. You need to pull yourself together strongly.
I think it’s not a small problem. We need
to think of female and male equality. If we think of true equality, the sizes
of restroom areas should not be equal. If the sizes were equal, the number of
toilet bowls for women would be less than that for men. We should prepare at
least the same number of toilet bowls for both men and women, but I don’t think
that is enough. Females need more time to use the restroom. I think restrooms
for women need a bigger area and more toilet bowls to address this issue.
I don’t know if the expo planner was a man
or a woman, but did that person not feel anything when he or she watched the
long lines for the women’s restrooms?
This problem not only applies to the expo
but also to any events or theaters. The planners need to consider this problem
when they design the restrooms—the restrooms are important.
How did my wife solve this problem at the
expo? Don’t worry. She has a special skill. Gundam didn’t have special skills
in the story, but my wife does. When I first met my wife, I assumed she was a
boy. She looked like a male. She always wore boyish-style clothes. Sometimes,
she gets scolded by other women in the restrooms: “This is the ladies’
restroom!”
My wife’s special skill is using the men’s
restroom. We entered the same male restroom, but no one minded her. You need
talent to use this special skill. If you can pull off wearing men’s attire, you
can try that.
My sister-in-law? She has a more radical
special skill. If she tries, she can endure not urinating for over seventeen
hours. This might be a wonderful special skill.
However, these are not the solutions to the
problem. My wife doesn’t want to use the male restroom, and my sister-in-law
definitely cannot hold out all the time.
I strongly insist that there be true
equality for men and women when it comes to restrooms.
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