Five years on from the delayed Tokyo Olympics, one of its less obvious legacies is probably the highest-spec public toilets in the world. Seventeen architects turned conveniences across the city into what one, Kengo Kuma, called “must-see attractions” – including a design with clear-glass cubicles that become opaque when occupied. The German film director Wim Wenders took note. In 2023 they featured in his film, Perfect Days, about a cleaner.

A public realm in which humans and their needs are treated with so much dignity deserves to be celebrated. But new loos do not have to be architectural icons. The main thing is that there should be enough of them, and that they are maintained.

This week’s report from the Royal Society for Public Health reveals that in England this is far from being the case. Analysis based on 221 freedom of........

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