Multi-purpose

Greetings.
I am Poncho, the evangelist of love and sex, and I have arrived.

When was it that "multi-purpose toilets" started being called "accessible toilets" before we knew it?

In March 2021, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revised its barrier-free design guidelines and officially standardized the name. This was against the backdrop of long-standing issues where wheelchair users and ostomates, who actually need those facilities, were unable to use them because they were occupied by general users. Of course, that is not the only reason. There is a strong view that the "multi-purpose toilet affair" involving Ken Watabe of Unjash, reported in June 2020 at the Roppongi Hills underground parking lot, strongly pushed this renaming. Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has not officially acknowledged the causal relationship, when the name change was reported, reactions such as "Watabe moved the country" erupted on social media, and it became such a stir that "multi-purpose toilet" entered the Twitter trends. In fact, the consideration of the name change began in December 2020, half a year after the Watabe scandal was reported, so it is quite difficult to say that it is "completely unrelated" even looking at the timeline.

In any case, since that scandal, I am probably not the only one who feels a somewhat lascivious ring to the word "multi-purpose." No, please do not misunderstand. This is not a very serious story, but rather a joke-like—no, a half-joke-like aspect of the story.

When someone says "multi-purpose" at a drinking party, everyone's eyes wander for a moment. That subtle atmosphere. That complicit silence. I find myself imagining something else for a moment when I hear "multi-purpose hall." Mr. Watabe added an indelible sexiness to a single Japanese word. In a sense, he is a man who has carved his name into the history of language.

I do not dislike Mr. Watabe at all. In fact, I like him.
He is a man who aimed for the heights even after obtaining a wife who condensed all the beauty that the world envies. There is no way he would not be an object of respect for me, a polyamorist. Amazing.

I have digressed.
Now, this is where the real story begins.

If he did multi-purpose things in a multi-purpose toilet, then I cannot criticize Mr. Watabe at all. Because I, too, have done multi-purpose things in various places.

The balcony of a resort hotel. As the sea breeze caressed my cheeks, tourists were lying by the pool below. Looking up, a sky full of stars. It sounds romantic to say it, but in short, I did a multi-purpose thing on the balcony. Praying that the resident of the next room would not come out onto their balcony.

The emergency stairs of an office building. On the way home from overtime, a dim, deserted concrete space. The echo was ringing excessively. Only the fluorescent light of the emergency exit was glowing faintly green. That was not an emergency, but it might have been a fitting use for the emergency stairs.

The school club room. After school, the club building where no one was left. Worn-out pipe chairs and tournament posters on the walls. It sounds beautiful to call it a page of youth, but the reality is just multi-purpose.

However, the most vivid memory in my multi-purpose career is an incident at her dormitory. Men are prohibited from entering. The carefully maintained hedge that surrounds the dormitory. In the shade of that hedge, we did a multi-purpose thing.

That might have been the most exciting one.

Why? The answer is obvious. The absolute taboo that men are prohibited from entering. If the dorm mother found out, her expulsion would be inevitable. The dormitory lights leaking through the gaps in the hedge. The tension of not knowing when someone might show their face from a window. All these conditions made that experience special.

Let me talk a little intellectually here.

There is a concept in psychology called "psychological reactance." It is a theory proposed by American psychologist Jack Brehm, which states that humans have a fundamental desire to choose their own actions freely, and when that freedom is threatened from the outside, a strong backlash occurs to try to restore the lost freedom. In Japan, it is also known by the common name "Caligula effect." It originates from the episode where the 1980 American film "Caligula" was banned in Boston due to its extreme content, and as a result, citizens flocked to neighboring towns to watch it, making it a big hit.

When told "don't do it," you want to do it. When told "don't open it," you want to open it. Urashima Taro opened the treasure box, Pandora opened the box, and the old woman in the crane's repayment opened the sliding door. Throughout history and across cultures, the essence of human beings does not change.

According to this theory, feeling excited about "doing things you shouldn't do in places you shouldn't do them" is exactly the activation of psychological reactance. By being forbidden, the subjective value of the object jumps, and by violating that prohibition, an impulse to prove "self-determination" works. Furthermore, prohibition increases the scarcity of the object. Social psychology points out that the harder something is to obtain, the higher its value is judged to be. In other words, the situation of "you must never do it here" is what gives that act tremendous added value.

The reason we want to do multi-purpose things not on a bed, but on a resort hotel balcony, on emergency stairs, or in the shade of a student dormitory hedge is not because we are lazy or perverted—no, maybe we are a little perverted—but it is a kind of inevitability deeply rooted in the human psychological structure.

Multi-purpose toilets, because of their name "multi-purpose," have induced usage that deviates from their original purpose. It can be said that the tolerance of being "available for multiple purposes" has lowered the psychological hurdle for acts that exceed the "scope of multi-purpose." This is both ironic and an honest expression of human psychology.

Now that they are called accessible toilets, I wonder if fewer people are using those facilities for multi-purpose activities. They probably are. The power of a name is great. "Multi-purpose" had room for interpretation. "Accessible" does not. If the disappearance of that room for interpretation is what stifled the imagination of those miscreants, then I must say that renaming them was the right decision.

But, I think.

The sense of immorality in "doing something you shouldn't in a place where you shouldn't." That sensation that makes every pore in your body open up, that makes the back of your brain tingle. I believe that the flavor of life is slightly different for those who know that feeling compared to those who do not.

It is precisely because I have done it that I understand.

That is a good thing.

Just make sure you don't cause trouble for others.