bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP’s Asia desk

Japan’s Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai bills itself as the “People’s Living Lab – a laboratory for a future society” and challenges the world to imagine a more sustainable future.
But news reports seem to suggest it is not ensuring a sustainable present for the women working on its construction site, with an employee’s toilet plea going unanswered.
Writing on the Osaka Prefectural Government website, the construction worker appealed for women’s restrooms to be installed at the site of the expo, set to open on April 13, The Mainichi newspaper reported.
But it remains unclear if management has responded.
A comment attributed to a “woman working inside [an Expo] pavilion” was submitted on December 6 and posted on the website on January 31.
The user stated: “There are only men’s restrooms on site, with no facilities for women ... I can only use the restroom at 7am when I arrive at the railway station, and around 6pm after work when I return.”
She also added: “The worksite is extremely cold, and I run the risk of bladder rupture while on the job.” Referring to Japan’s current imperial era which began in 2019, the post concluded with the rhetoric: “Is this the state of workplaces in the Reiwa era?
“Please install women’s restrooms as soon as possible. This is my earnest request.”

In February, The Mainichi followed up on the woman’s request and said it was given the runaround.
An official at the Expo promotion bureau said it was not responsible for the construction of the pavilions, and advised contacting the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, which was preparing and managing the event.
The association, in turn, responded that women’s restrooms were available at the construction site as indicated in the blueprints, but could not give any information on the locations or quantity, saying those were the contractors’ responsibilities.
A spokesman told the paper: “It likely depends on where exactly the woman was working at the venue.”
The episode underscores what is reportedly a recurring problem for female construction workers in Japan.
“The construction site workers are predominantly male, and restroom issues for female workers are a persistent concern,” Yukie Ishikawa, head of the Woman Building and Construction Industry Society, told the daily.

While major construction companies have started providing separate on-site restrooms for men and women, subcontractor-led locations purportedly often have only one shared restroom or just men’s facilities.
“Female workers immediately search for convenience stores on map apps once their worksite is assigned. They feel guilty using a restroom without making a purchase, often buying a can of coffee, which significantly increases expenses in the winter,” Ishikawa was quoted as saying.
The lack of bathrooms is a problem not just for construction workers but Japanese women on the whole.
A 60-year-old paralegal, Momose Manami, set out on a one-woman quest to find out how many women’s restrooms there were in Japan compared with men’s, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported earlier this year.
After counting 706 spots, she discovered that, while most locations generally devoted the same amount of physical space to both genders, men had more actual facilities.
Retail businesses tended to be more equal, with only 1.1 male restroom facilities per one for women. Public transit was particularly bad, with 1.7 facilities per men for every one for women.


Ishiba’s gift scandal sparks ‘volcanic’ public outrage, plunging Japan’s LDP into crisis

Hong Kong stocks hit 3-year high on hopes Trump-Xi talks could ease trade tensions

Asia’s commercial property market growing in diversity and complexity

US$27 fee to climb Japan’s Mount Fuji to be levied from May 2025 to tackle overcrowding

Japan

Plea for women’s toilets at Japan’s Osaka Expo building site: ‘risk of bladder rupture’

The 2025 World Exposition’s iconic Grand Ring, recently completed on an artificial island in Osaka, Japan, on February 28. Photo: Kyodo

The 2025 World Exposition’s iconic Grand Ring, recently completed on an artificial island in the western Japan city of Osaka. Photo: Kyodo

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (centre left) stands with Myaku-Myaku (centre right), the mascot for the 2025 Osaka World Expo, during a visit to the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion event in the Shibuya district of Tokyo on March 1. Photo: Jiji Press / AFP

Japanese sex scouts: arrests mark alarming trend of women recruited into prostitution

Pedestrians walk past an entrance at Kabukicho, Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: EPA-EFE

A man walks past a signboard of a bar in the Kabukicho district of Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Osaka Expo’s ticket sales flop: will Japan’s futuristic fair be a financial failure?

People take photos in front of a statue of Myaku-Myaku, the official mascot for the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka on January 17. Photo: AP

The Gundam Next Future Pavilion at the Osaka Expo site, which is due to open on April 13. Photo: AP

A journalist takes a photo from the roof of the Grand Ring, the wooden centrepiece of the 2025 World Exposition on Yumeshima island in Osaka on January 17. Photo: AP

Japan’s Osaka World Expo plagued with cost overruns, delays as ‘fed-up’ locals demand answers

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (first row, sitting third from left) during an event in Tokyo to promote the Osaka World Expo in July 2022. Photo: Kyodo

Yumeshima, venue of the Osaka World Expo 2025. Photo: Handout

People take photographs in front of the Dotonbori Glico sign in Osaka. Photo: AFP

Japan tourism expo returns with fewer visitors, but sector remains upbeat as travel curbs ease

Foreign tourists walk through Nakamise Street at Asakusa, in downtown Tokyo. Photo: EPA-EFE

Tourism Expo Japan 2022, Asia’s biggest travel show before Covid-19 decimated the industry, saw fewer visitors than previous years’ editions but that failed to put a damper on exhibitors. Photo: Kyodo

Travellers arrive at Hong Kong’s international airport after the compulsory quarantine is lifted. Photo: AFP 

Chinese tourists take a break after shopping in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district on April 11, 2010. China’s continued strict Covid-19 restrictions are unlikely to boost visitor arrivals in Japan any time soon. Photo: AP

Japan jeers at ‘terrifying’ mascot for Osaka World Expo: ‘My gods, who approved that monstrosity?’

The official mascot of the 2025 Osaka World Expo. Photo: Instagram/@expo2025japan

The official logo of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai World Exposition, containing a variation on the design of the multi-eyed mascot, is unveiled in Osaka in 2020. Photo: Kyodo


This Week in Asia

Lifestyle & Culture

News

Asia

East Asia

An online user claiming to be a worker bursts into tirade about lack of toilets at world-class expo site


An online user claiming to be a worker bursts into tirade about lack of toilets at world-class expo site.


Women and gender

Gender

Tourism