Japanese Restrooms Offer Special Toilet Paper For Wiping Phones

Wipe, then swipe.

When you’re cleaning up after number two, don’t forget your number one gadget.

NTT Docomo, a unit of Japan’s telecom giant, has installed smartphone wipes in restrooms at Tokyo Narita International Airport.

A man demonstrates the new cellphone toilet paper.
A man demonstrates the new cellphone toilet paper.
Toru Hanai / Reuters

The company even posted a helpful instructional video on how to use Japanese toilets and bidets (which it calls a “shower”) as well as the new smartphone wipes.

The wipes will be in some of the Narita bathrooms until March 15, NTT Docomo said.

A close-up look at the new smartphone toilet paper.
A close-up look at the new smartphone toilet paper.
Toru Hanai / Reuters

The wipes also double as ads for NTT’s wifi service, as well as a travel guide app that offers voice translation for visitors to Japan.

But no matter where you are, giving the phone a wipe isn’t a bad idea: A 2012 study for the Wall Street Journal found poop germs on all eight of the cellphones randomly tested, while a University of Arizona study found that phones are 10 times germier than the typical toilet seat.

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