You wouldn’t expect an award-winning acting role to come from something called the Tokyo Toilet Project, but that’s what happened for veteran Japanese actor Kôji Yakusho. The project, which involved ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Cleanliness has long been next to godliness for the hygiene-conscious Japanese, but fortune-tellers are now advising those who want to succeed in life to start by scrubbing the ...

NPR's Scott Simon talks to the German film director Wim Wenders about his new, Oscar-nominated film. "Perfect Days" is a story about a cultured Japanese toilet cleaner in Tokyo. We see a lot in the ...

For more than a hundred years, toilet paper has remained a fixture of modern hygiene—a default solution so widespread it’s rarely questioned. But that dominance is starting to crack, and the challenge ...

KITA-KYUSHU, Japan — If there’s one thing Japan is passionate about, it’s toilets. Potties, loos, restrooms, johns, powder rooms — however you say it, Japan has put a lot of thought into the smallest ...

KITA-KYUSHU, JAPAN -- If there's one thing Japan is passionate about, it's toilets. Potties, loos, restrooms, john, powder room, however you say it, Japan has put a lot of thought into the smallest ...