Fortune Favors Those Who Worship Their Washrooms

Oct 5th, 2006
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20061005p2g00m0dm019000c.html
By Ryann Connell

Japan - It's a claim bordering on the potty, but cleaning your toilet can bring you a fabulous fortune, according to Shukan Gendai (10/14).

"Within two weeks of starting to clean my toilet on a daily basis, the price of shares I'd owned for years finally started to rise," Sun Plaza Nakano, the lead singer of now disbanded '90s comic band Bakufu Slump, tells Shukan Gendai, which says the beautifying of bogs is going through something of a boom in Japan at the moment.

Nakano explains why a clean crapper is the first step to financial gain.

"Toilets are watched over by a god called Ususama Myouo and praying to this god brings good financial fortune. The easiest way to bring about this good luck is by cleaning your toilet daily. I've been trading in shares for about six years now. When I first heard of the toilet link to luck, the first thing that came to mind was my shares," the ex-rock singer says.

Nakano says he started daily preening of his pooper in about November last year. Early the following month, shares he'd owned for half a dozen years suddenly sprung to life after their price had largely been dormant.

"It was the first time they'd ever gone up like that. The overall improvement of the stock market has probably helped, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all share prices are going to rise," Nakano tells Shukan Gendai. "You don't need to clean the toilet perfectly. Instead of running the automatic cleaner after having a pee in the morning, just take out the brush and give the cistern a wipe over, or use a rag to rub down the floor or water tank and that should be enough."

Yuhobika, a medical health journal, is already one company that can attest to fortune stemming from toilet cleaning. It released the book "Tsuki wo Yobu Toire Soji (Toilet Cleaning: A Good Luck Charm)" and sold 70,000 copies in two weeks.

Websites and blogs devoted to toilet cleaning and luck are popping up all the time, attracting loads of testimony from people saying they've won big on lotteries or scored on the stock market after becoming regular restroom refiners. And it's not just financial benefits that have been gained, either. Others claimed that cleansing their commodes has led to promotions at work or the disappearance of a uterine tumor, according to the men's weekly.

Beneficiaries of latrine luckiness have not just been ordinary people, either. Some of Japan's biggest names are also beneficiaries of potty providence, like Beat Takeshi, who revealed his break upon winning the Venice Film Festival's Gold Lion Award for "Hana-Bi" several years ago.

"Even if it's a shoddy show, all I have to do is appear and the ratings go up. If I bring out a novel, it sells. If I paint a picture, which is my hobby, it gets praised. If I make a film, it wins a prize. But I don't think I have any more talent than the next guy. The only thing that I can think of that makes me stand out from other people is that I like cleaning toilets. When I was young, a fortune teller recommended that I clean toilets and ever since I've cleaned too many to count," the weekly quotes Takeshi saying at the time.

Other famous advocates of toilet cleaning include veteran variety performer Akiko Wada and legendary baseball manager Senichi Hoshino, both of who attribute at least some of their considerable success to having taken a cistern-atic approach to life.

Feng shui expert Ling Shu-sei is another who says there's a clear link between the smallest room in the house and the thickness of people's wallets.

"Toilets have the closest relationship to financial fortunes and economic conditions than any other place in a house or company building. A clean toilet will bring good fortune to a home, but, on the other hand, luck will avoid any home where the toilet is dirty," the feng shui expert tells Shukan Gendai. "If a toilet smells really bad, it's a sign that evil spirits have entered the home. From a feng shui perspective, this is a disaster."