The Case for Japan’s Amazing Clothes-Drying Bathrooms
25th May 2024
There’s a gulf between Europe and America, and it involves laundry. When it comes to drying clothes, the former relies largely on air-drying, laying their clothes on racks or hanging them on lines outdoors. Households in the US and Canada mostly tumble-dry their laundry in mechanical dryers. The chasm is pretty marked: Europe’s greatest dryer enthusiasts, the Danes, use machine drying for just 28% of their laundry, while an estimated 80% of American households tumble-dry weekly.It’s a gap that has persisted for decades, much to the puzzlement of international visitors. But in Japan, travelers from either side of the Atlantic are often surprised to discover a third way of drying clothes: Behold the yokushitsu kansouki.