By The Financial District
Jun 11, 20222 min
A Nagoya-based startup has created one of the world's smallest portable toilets, which it hopes will become an essential part of disaster kits throughout Japan and even in conflict-torn areas such as Ukraine.
Photo Insert: Yoshinori Kokenawa, head of Kokenawa Inc., shows off the Pocketoilet.
In contrast to disaster preparedness supplies such as emergency food, according to a 2018 survey by research group Japan Toilet Labo, only 16.9 percent of households have some kind of emergency toilet on hand. Kokenawa Inc. intends to change that by providing toilets in the form of a sturdy bag.
Yoshinori Kokenawa, 30, had the idea while volunteering in Nagano, central Japan, in 2019, after Typhoon Hagibis caused the banks of the Chikuma River to burst. He noticed a long line of people waiting to use a portable toilet there.
"Even though people were working as fast as they could to get the area back on its feet, they had to line up 30 minutes or more every time they used the bathroom. I wanted to do something about this," he explained.
People are concerned about toilets when it comes to disaster evacuation facilities, and there have been reports of people becoming ill after avoiding relieving themselves.
To increase the rate of emergency toilet ownership, the company set out to develop a lightweight, high-functioning product, and the Pocketoilet, measuring 7 centimeters tall and 6.5 centimeters wide, was released in December 2020.
"They can fit even in a woman's makeup bag, so we hope people will carry them with ease," Kokenawa said. Users attach the product, which is made of special fibers, to a toilet bowl or trash can and then fill it with a coagulant.
According to the company's tests, when one of the bags is left indoors with feces inside it for a week, it emits almost no odor. So far, the company has sold approximately 50,000 Pocketoilets and recently donated 6,000 of them to Ukraine in the midst of the ongoing Russian invasion.
Recently, the company has shifted its focus to matching those in need of assistance with those willing to provide it.
To bring them together, it is constructing a system to provide as much as is required of specific support items, and has also set up a website for people to pre-register items they can donate to Ukrainians evacuating to Japan, among other initiatives.