Yes. In ordinary Japanese homes with flush toilets, used toilet paper should be flushed down the toilet.
In some countries and regions, plumbing systems are not designed to handle toilet paper, so used paper is placed in a trash bin beside the toilet instead.
But that is not how toilets are normally used in Japanese homes. Used toilet paper goes into the toilet bowl and is flushed.
Even if there is a small trash bin in a Japanese bathroom, it is not there for used toilet paper. It is usually for things that should not be flushed, such as sanitary products.
If a guest threw used toilet paper into that bin, the people living in the home might be genuinely shocked and wonder why it had been put there.
Even if throwing toilet paper in a bin is normal where you come from, do not use that method in a Japanese home.
However, this does not mean that every kind of paper can be flushed.
Toilet paper is designed to break apart easily in water. Tissues and kitchen paper, on the other hand, are made to stay stronger when wet. If you use them instead of toilet paper and then flush them, they can cause a blockage.
Diapers and sanitary products should never be flushed either.
Even ordinary toilet paper can cause problems if too much is flushed at once. “Flushable” does not mean that any amount can be flushed safely.
For foreigners using a toilet in a Japanese home, the basic rule is simple:
Flush ordinary used toilet paper. Do not flush tissues, sanitary products, or other items unless they are specifically meant to be flushed.
That is usually all you need to remember.
References
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Sewerage — “Do Not Flush Diapers or Tissues That Do Not Dissolve Easily in Water”
- TOTO — Guidance on Flushing Tissues, Kitchen Paper, and Other Paper Products
