Toilets in elevators. Say what?

JAPAN. Home of sushi, high-speed trains and … moving dunnies.

The Pacific island nation is actually considering installing toilets in elevators after dozens of people were left "high and dry" following a 7.8-magnitude earthquake last weekend.

The quake cut out electricity across Tokyo on Saturday leaving dozens stranded in lifts.

Some were stuck for over an hour prompting officials to look at measures to alleviate those who become stranded.

A meeting held between the infrastructure ministry and elevator industry bodies on Wednesday agreed to look into providing toilets for use in an emergency.

They also suggested providing emergency supplies of drinking water in lifts.

Busting? People in Japan won’t have to do this anymore if the country installs loos in lifts. Source: Supplied

Ideas for the emergency toilets include collapsible cardboard structures with a waterproof bag or absorbent material inside or capitalising on existing ideas.

Some newer lifts have small seating areas for Japan’s growing ranks of elderly people, and installing toilets underneath these seats is one possibility.

Japan has about 620,000 elevators in public or commercial buildings nationwide, about 20 per cent of which are in Tokyo. It also sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and is regularly hit by powerful earthquakes.

Mmm, sushi. Japan is not considering having sushi in elevators. Yet. Source: Supplied

The government estimates that the next "Big One" — a huge quake seismologists say is almost certain to hit the capital over the coming decades — may leave up to 17,000 people stranded in elevators.

Saturday’s quake was centred on a remote spot in the Pacific Ocean about 900km south of Tokyo, but was felt throughout the country.

Twelve people were injured, including a 56-year-old man who broke his ribs, but no one was killed.