Bog roll call

On 1st September, Japan marked Disaster Prevention Day with a call to families to stockpile lavatory paper since almost half of the Asian country's supply comes from one of its most earthquake-prone areas.  Government officials explained that food and water were the emergency supplies people secured, often forgetting toilet paper and becoming desperate when it was too late.  To use tissues designed for other use could clog up workable toilets, said Toshiyuki Hashimoto, an industry ministry official.
It reminds me of a documentary I watched a while back on the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and ensuing tsunami and what stood out once one had taken in the destruction was the toilet issues survivors had.  Japan is one of the leading innovators in toilet design and Japanese values have a strong emphasis on privacy.  Though warnings gave many Japanese living by the affected coast a chance to escape to high ground out of reach of the tsunami, with their homes destroyed or uninhabitable, the survivors often had to live out in the open until rescued and taken in.  But the scale of the disaster had so dislocated the transport system that rescue could take several days.  Unwilling to commit what they saw as a personal disgrace by relieving themselves in the open and not using toilet paper, many survivors physically tried to keep in their waste.  Doctors examining them afterwards said that such actions had damaged their internal organs, especially their intestines.  An example where traditionalism and modernity mingle and - irrationally - cause harm.  So the urging their citizens to stock up on toilet paper is no idle whimsy from the Japanese government.