Leave it to Japan to come up with the most unconventional solutions to its problems. Due to the amount of power-outages it has been having due to another powerful earthquake that shook the islands South of Tokyo on Saturday evening, it has been determined that bathrooms must be installed inside of elevator lifts to provide portable toilets and emergency drinking water in case anyone becomes trapped for hours during a power outage.
The decision was made by the infrastructure ministry and the elevator industry of Japan when it was discovered that during the weekend's 8.1 magnitude quake, over 19,000 elevators in the capital and neighboring prefectures stopped working.
According to industry officials, people were trapped for up to 70 minutes in 14 different elevators before rescuers arrived. Being a nation known for being dependable and reliable, this was simply not a situation the country wants repeated.
Especially when seismologists are estimating that when the "next big one" hits Japan, over 17,000 people could potentially become stuck in elevators without knowing how long it will take for help to arrive.
But don't expect the emergency toilets to be fancy and high-tech, like some other over-the-top toilets that Japan has become known for producing.
These portable loos for emergency situations may only be nothing more than cardboard boxes with waterproof lining or absorbent material inside them.
No word yet on when and how Japan will start outfitting its elevators with emergency toilets and portable drinking water, but with around 620,000 elevators in commercial and public buildings - 20 percent of which are located in the country's capital of Tokyo, it has certainly got a lot of lifts to cover to ensure that elevator users will remain comfortable and hydrated even if they are stuck for hours in-between floors in the event of a sudden power outage.
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