Special Color Changing Urinal Stickers

Tiny stickers designed to look like flies, ladybirds, ghosts, monsters and a range of other objects are starting to appear in urinals in public toilets across Japan, with the latest designs featuring changing colors and disappearing illustrations.

The idea behind the stickers is that if men aim at them when they go to the toilet, there is less splashing, making it easier to clean the urinals. A feature of many new stickers is that they change color or become invisible, and it appears that many male bathroom users are happy to have a go at hitting the target.

One of the companies behind the boom in the stickers is Osaka-based Taka Art. At a drinking party at the company, workers said the stickers were funny, and suggested that the firm make its own versions.

In January 2006, it started selling ladybird stickers whose color changes from red to black when hit. A pachinko player was also at the drinking party, and this led to the development of a triple-seven sticker resembling an image from a slot machine. Another design features a pink illustration that disappears when hit, leaving behind a skeleton.

One more firm came up with a sticker depicting a ghost that disappears when hit, leaving behind a ball of fire, and one in which a golf ball on the sticker disappears, leaving behind the tee. Saitama-based company Nakajima, which produced the stickers, is now reportedly working on a fire-breathing monster. When the monster is hit, the flames coming out of its mouth are “extinguished” and disappear.

Another firm, Osaka-based Image, sells the stickers in sets with other stickers asking, “Can you hit it?” to draw attention to the target.

Kansai International Airport was reportedly the first place in Japan where the stickers were introduced in public toilets. An official at the airport spotted similar stickers on a trip to South Korea, and introduced them in September 2004 as part of the airport’s 10th anniversary “clean airport” campaign.

The airport asked Soyosha Co., a company located in Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, to create the stickers. The firm was reportedly taken aback by the request, but came up with a product a month after the order was made.

Since the stickers were to be placed somewhere that was frequently covered in water, the firm focused on producing a product that had strong adhesive power, used waterproof ink and had a plastic coating. The design they came up with was a dartboard with the number 10 printed in a star in the middle of the sticker.

Various businesses such as copying and information processing companies, label and sticker printing firms, and marketing companies have got in on the act and are producing the stickers. However, with only about 600 stickers a month sold, and the price of each sticker ranging from about 30 yen to 300 yen, the market remains small.

Taka Art is reportedly considering marketing the urinal stickers for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but unfortunately many firms are predicting that the sticker sales will leave them with only piddling profits.

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By Mui Mui on 20-02-2007