Wayward aiming Japanese men take a seat in smallest room

The Japanese male's inability to aim straight is obliging record numbers of them to sit rather than stand during brief visits to the smallest room in the house, a survey showed yesterday.

The poll of married couples by Matsushita Electric Works revealed that 49% of men urinate while sitting down following complaints from their wives about their poor sense of direction, more than treble the number of eight years ago.

Younger men were the most willing to change their habits, according to the survey of 518 couples aged 30-50.



"The chances of spraying the seat are much higher when you stand up, and many women hate cleaning up the mess," a Matsushita spokeswoman said.

"Many of the women we surveyed said they had asked their husbands to sit down, even when they urinate, and it looks like the message has got through."

But the trend towards sitting may be about more than cleanliness. One of the most popular short poems of this year was a salaryman's bittersweet paean to the modern Japanese WC: The only warmth in my life is the toilet seat.