This Airport's Crazy 'Smartphone Toilet Paper' Is Actually Brilliant

Don’t let the predilection for towering ramen bowls and pumpkin spice french fries fool you: Japan is a wonderful, clean country. Japan is so tidy that its largest airport, Narita International, is stocking its bathrooms with toilet paper for your smartphone. So after you land and casually peruse Tokyo’s Tinder scene, you can stop off in a stall to cleanse your screen of face-grease and shame.

The Guardian reports that 86 toilet cubicles in the arrivals terminal at Narita have been equipped with the special smartphone toilet paper, which bears the pleasant greeting “Welcome to Japan,” and information about airport WiFi and a special travel app.

The airport’s initiative comes after various studies concluded that smartphone screens typically harbor more germs than toilet seats. It’s probable that the researchers were citing public Japanese toilets in their studies, because it’s hard to imagine a toilet at Newark International Airport being cleaner than your average iPhone 7 screen.

In addition to being a wonderland for smart-toilets, Japan also wants its citizens to maintain proper hygiene while eating fried chicken. KFC just rolled out special fried chicken finger condoms napkins in the country, because there seems to be a government prohibition on anything remotely related to grease.

The smartphone toilet paper will remain at Narita International until next March. Japan sounds very clean.

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Sam Blum has wanted to go to Japan ever since he was a little boy. Please buy him a ticket and then follow him @Blumnessmonster.