Civic Mindedness

It is a public toilet at the Tsukijishijo Fish Market. I thought being at the normally untidy area of wet market, the odour will be strong and unbearable, but it is not the case with this toilet. I tried hard to smell but the odour was way below the usual level we have in Malaysia. I believe this must have something to do with the culture of Japanese. Members of the community are willing to clean up the toilet, even at the public place after using it simply because they hold on to the believe that next person is entitled to have a clean area for finishing their business. They are so considerate and looking after other people for enjoying the facilities whereas back home we tend to leave everything to the cleaner. We have always thought that the cleaner is paid to do this job and we can have the privilege of not cleaning it, or even dirtying it. However, we have always forgotten about individual responsibility in which an action by an individual collectively will make an impact. For example, if everyone is willing to clean the toilet, then we might not need to employ many cleaners, and hence reduce the cost is possible. Similar concept if applied to the public area cleansing and rubbish collection at the public area should have us paying less tax, isn't it?