40% of Japanese Children Refuse to Poop at School

A poll shows that 40% of Japanese elementary school children refuse to do #2 at school.

Writer Yachiyo Murakami has begun writing a series of books to guide parents and children through their “second” toilet training. She was recently quoted as saying that the problem is that once parents get their kids to stop using diapers and to go to the bathroom on their own, they stop paying attention to kids bathroom habits. She also takes the opportunity to teach kids that what goes in also comes out to help them improve nutritional habits. She argues that kids should keep a journal of what they eat and when it comes out so that they will be able to begin talking about their toilet habits.

An elementary school in Yokohama has begun using Murakami’s books and ideas. They claim that students eating habits have improved and students have begun to use the bathroom in the morning before coming to school.

My commentary…

Point one:
Does it really have to come to this for people to just talk about things here? Do we need books, and calls for a second toilet training, and schools to make kids keep bowel journals? I’m sure there are people in other countries who don’t like to use the bathroom at school (like Finch in American Pie?) but 40% is a bit outrageous. One would think there’d be teachers noticing a problem and talking to the kids about it or something.

Point two:
I’m sure you’ve noticed my use of the word POOP in the title. It’s OK. I’m as embarrassed as you are… but let me tell you the Goo online dictionary was no help. I often use it as a sort of makeshift thesaurus throwing Japanese or English words in there to see how they are translated.

Here’s what Goo dictionary gave me for haiben (排便) which should be something like “bowel movement”.

“choke a darkie//do one’s business//drop the kids off at the
pool〈米俗〉//empty one’s bowels//evacuate the [one’s] bowels//give birth
to a politician//have a crap//lay an egg//lay cable〈俗〉//move one’s
bowels//pass a bowel movement//pass a stool//perform the work of
nature//push out a grumpy〈米俗〉//relieve one’s bowels//relieve
oneself//take a crap [dump, shit]〈卑〉”

So the first meaning I’m given to work with here is “choke a darkie”. That’s just so much wrong in having that listed as the number one for “number two”… not to mention that I’ve never heard the term before.

The third meaning is “drop the kids off at the pool” which I’ve heard before…

The current political climate in Japan seems to favor me using “give birth to a politician”, while “push out a grumpy” made me chuckle.

I finally chose “poop” to match up with the elementary school theme of the article, but poop wasn’t even one of my official options!

So should the title of this post have been “40% of Japanese Childrent Refuse to Push Out Grumpies at School”?

Point Three:
I wrote about another toilet related poll a long time ago. This poll claims that 40% of Japanese men sit down when they pee.