The Japanese are famous for being neat and meticulous, even when going to the public toilet, you can see the paper roll is often folded into a neat triangle like this…
Japan is known as the most disciplined country in the world. Japanese society always emphasizes caring and paying attention to people around in the culture of public behavior. And one of the most common polite gestures in Japan is folding toilet paper into a triangle after use.
Toilet paper in the shape of a triangle. (Photo: Internet).
In fact, this act of folding the top of the paper roll into a triangle is usually a sign when the sanitation workers finish their work, meaning that everything has been cleaned by them, neatly, every people can safely use . After a while, this action gradually became familiar, Japanese people began to think it was a civilized, polite gesture, showing thoughtful attention to the latter. This way of folding the triangle is also to make it easier for people to pull out the paper to use.
Triangular folds make it easier for people coming behind to pull the paper out. (Photo: Internet).
However, this thoughtful gesture is only truly wonderful if one does it after… washing hands. A warning was recorded at a hospital in Japan with the following content:
“A request to the patients, please don’t fold the toilet paper into a triangle. If you fold the paper after you go to the bathroom but don’t wash your hands, you’re more likely to spread infection-causing bacteria from bacteria in the stool and urine.”
A warning at the hospital toilet. (Photo: Internet).
In the normal order of going to the toilet, a person will go to the toilet, go to the toilet, clean, fold the paper, wash their hands. It is very rare for people to go out and wash their hands before entering to fold the triangle paper.
From a medical perspective, this is an extremely dirty act because the personal cleaning process is likely to be contaminated with many types of bacteria from feces and urine, which will then spread through the roll of paper when this person folds the paper. and transmit it to the next user. Especially in public toilet areas such as in hospitals, patients with all kinds of diseases, if not warned about the risk of spreading from this “beautiful act” , can lead to serious consequences. to many unfortunate infections, is a real health concern.
Therefore, doctors urge people that, although not folding the paper is considered impolite, it is definitely a smart action to protect yourself as well as protect those around you.