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Japanese app helps workers find open toilets -- and employers track bathroom time

By Ben Hooper
A Japanese telecommunications firm unveiled an app designed to help workers find the nearest available toilet in their office building. Screenshot: WBBH-TV
A Japanese telecommunications firm unveiled an app designed to help workers find the nearest available toilet in their office building. Screenshot: WBBH-TV

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Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A Japanese telecom firm announced the creation of an app to help workers find available bathroom stalls -- and to tell employers if they spend too much time in there.

KDDI said the app, which will be available to businesses in March, will tell workers in participating buildings where they can find the nearest available bathroom stall.

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"People often waste time by looking around for an available toilet on various floors or by waiting until one becomes available," KDDI spokesman Daisuke Maruo told The Japan Times. "We believe this service will help people waste less time."

The app uses sensors installed on the stall doors to determine whether they are occupied or available for use.

The sensors also notify an administrator if a toilet stall is occupied for more than 30 minutes, a service the company says is designed to notify bosses of potential accidents in the bathrooms, but could also be used to bust employees using the bathroom to avoid work -- a 2012 survey indicated 30 percent of middle-aged businessmen in Japan use bathroom stalls to take naps at work.

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"Even though people sometimes complain that the number of bathrooms in a building are not enough, it is often hard for facility administrators to increase the numbers," Maruo said. "We believe this solution will help solve the problem by streamlining how bathrooms are used."

The company said the service will be made available in office buildings next month, but could eventually be used at locations with high bathroom traffic, such as sports stadiums, train stations, and shopping malls.

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