The Korean bathroom culture has started to change. One of the reasons is that foreign tourists think Korean bathrooms are dirty because of the trash cans near the toilet. This is a great reason for change. Foreigners’ opinions about the trash cans are very different from Koreans’. Therefore, the local government of Songpagu demonstrated the removal of the trash cans for the first time in Korea on November 6th. In the past, it was difficult to remove the trash cans in Korea because the quality of toilet paper was too low to flush it out with the water. However, the quality of toilet paper has improved, so clogging a toilet is not a problem anymore.

  In the 20th century, Korean bathroom culture has had many changes. An outhouse, where the container is installed in the ground and saves the waste, was far away from the house. The reason for saving the waste was to use it as fertilizer, and the reason for the outhouse being far away was the smell from the saved waste. Lastly, our agrarian society changed to an industrial society, so bathrooms were moved into the house and the toilets were changed to Western-style toilets. 

  Each country in the world has its own bathroom culture, so people have a different sense of from bathroom cultures. In Japan, bathrooms are separated from shower rooms now. The cause of separating the bathrooms and the shower rooms was that the Japanese think shower rooms are places to clean the body and bathrooms are dirty places. In India, it had only 500cc cups instead of toilet paper because they used it to clean themselves after excretion. They think it is cleaner than using the paper, so toilet paper can not be found in India’s bathrooms. India has a more unique point. A commode is 30cm from the ground. The shape of the commode consists of two parts. Owing to the shape, we can be in a squatting position or in a sedentary position.

  Today, we can easily visit other countries, so we have many chances to experience other cultures. Global view interviewed different opinions about bathroom culture.

  Linda(Australian, female): It is a very good choice. I have never been to Korea. According to my friend, Korean bathrooms have trash cans. I think the bathrooms are dirty because dirty paper remains in bathrooms.

  Mandy Liu(Taiwanese, female): Some years ago, my country had a discussion about removing trash cans. I think throwing away the paper with the water contaminates the quality of water, so bathrooms must have trash cans. Nowadays, we have to understand the importance of not polluting the water.

  Munkhuu(Mongolian, male): I think toilet paper is not dirty. Throwing away the paper with the water affects the environment worse than throwing away in trash cans.