Terrified of being seen alone, students eat in toilets

While ghost stories and myths abound in schools, the one about a notice banning the consumption of food in university toilets is more sad than scary.

A little research sheds light on a growing phenomenon: Some students are so lonely they shut themselves inside toilet cubicles to eat.

The notice, with the same message, the same design and the same warning but with different school names, has been posted over the last few months in toilets at numerous universities.

"The following activities are banned in toilet stalls," says the notice, citing smoking, graffiti and eating.

All schools flatly deny putting up the warnings, raising the question of who did it and why. Some officials say the message is absurd, while others suspect it may be a student prank.

The mystery of the notice aside, eating in public toilets is all too real, especially among students, according to Daisuke Tsuji, an associate professor of communication studies at Osaka University.

The habit is called "benjo-meshi," literally toilet meal.

Students who eat hiding in restroom stalls are isolated on campus, Tsuji said. Seeing other students happily chatting with friends increases their sense of isolation.

For these students, it is better to eat in a toilet than to be perceived as friendless and spotted dining alone in the school cafeteria, he said.

At the University of Tokyo's Hongo campus in Bunkyo Ward, the notice was discovered in a men's restroom in late June.

A 23-year-old student of the Faculty of Law said it featured illustrations of a rabbit and a Western-style toilet. Photos of smoking, graffiti and a meal were crossed out.

The notice also warned that "a security camera is watching," adding violators would be punished and banned from using the toilets, according to the student.

The message said "The University of Tokyo" at the end, making it appear to have been put up by the school authorities, he said.

At Meijo University in Nagoya, a 21-year-old male student saw it first late last year.

"Since it said a security camera was on, I looked up to see if there was one," he said.

The same notice was found in a men's restroom at Yokohama National University in May.

Last fall, notices appeared in toilets at Kansai University and Kwansei Gakuin University in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures.

None of the universities has, of course, ever installed security cameras in the toilets.

An irate Yokohama National University official said: "It's impossible. There are no rules that are enforced with bans on toilet use."

Similarly puzzled, a University of Tokyo official wondered if it was a student joke.

The use of the same format could be explained by a flurry of Internet bulletin board postings about benjo-meshi or the notice itself.

It is suspected that someone posted a template for the notice in cyberspace, which could be downloaded and printed.

Tsuji first heard from students about benjo-meshi two years ago.

After he talked about it in class, some of his students told him they or someone they knew had done it.

Tsuji attributes the action to peer pressure. "They seem to be afraid of being labeled as friendless," he said.

He said some young people, sensitive to how others see them, feel great pressure if they have no friends.

"I am afraid that starting with benjo-meshi, such people could eventually quit school or withdraw from society," Tsuji said.(IHT/Asahi: July 7,2009)