"Just Buy a Drink": What Japanese Customers Say You Owe a Convenience Store for Using Its Toilet

What locals said (excerpted from 2827)

• Convenience store employee here. The people who dump their household trash, use the toilet without a word, stand there reading magazines for ages and then walk straight out — those I really can't take.

  コンビニ従業員です。 家庭ゴミ捨てて、トイレを無断で使い、立ち読みを長時間してそのまま出て行く奴はマジで勘弁です。

  — @カグツチ-m9wMost liked1,514 likes

• When you're in trouble with a sudden stomach ache, a convenience store is genuinely a godsend. I'm happy to buy something.

  急な腹痛でヤバい時のコンビニはマジで神。喜んで買い物します。

  — @やきそば弁当-r3t547 likes

• I make sure to buy something — a bottle of tea, a canned coffee, whatever. They bail you out in an emergency, so of course you pay it back.

  お茶一本でも缶コーヒーでも買うようにしてる 緊急時に助けてもらってんだから恩返しして当然

  — @せーうーしょーうー281 likes

• You'd think buying a coffee, or trash bags, or a ballpoint pen would just be automatic… the fact that it isn't is a bit sad.

  当たり前にコーヒーなり、ゴミ袋なり、ボールペンなりは買うというのに・・それがないのも悲しい

  — @もりかわにごう232 likes

• Whenever I use the toilet at a convenience store — and back in high school when I asked to be picked up from one — I always buy something. My mother always told me: gum, or just a drink, but buy something.

  コンビニでトイレするときや高校生の頃コンビニで送り迎え頼むときは必ず買い物をしています。いつも母にガムでも飲み物だけでもいいから買いなさいと言われました

  — @きょか気まぐれ37 likes

• I feel for the manager who has to put up a notice like this in the first place. A convenience store isn't a charity. I hear about the rest of it too — the car park used as free parking whenever there's an event nearby, people asking for change without buying anything. It isn't a rule and it isn't a law, but you should keep to the bare minimum of manners.

  こんな事、わざわざ張り出さなくちゃならない店長さんが気の毒です。コンビニは慈善事業じゃありません。他にも近くてイベントがある度に駐車場代わりにされたり、 何も買わないのに両替頼まれたり、色々聞きます。規則でも無いし法律でも無いけど、最低限のマナーは守るべきです。

  — @hideaway348479 likes

• A convenience store toilet isn't a public toilet — it's private property you're being allowed to use, not a free service the franchise mandates. If the owner decides customers can't use it, it's gone. So use it properly, and buying anything at all — gum, a Tirol chocolate — helps cover what the toilet costs to keep running. That's what the store appreciates. Anyone saying "not my problem" can use their own toilet or a public one.

  コンビニのトイレは公衆トイレではなく個人の所有物で使わせてもらってる物でフランチャイズの決められた無料のサービスではないんですよ。オーナーがお客様に使わせないと決めたら使えなくなるのでマナーを守って使ってもらいたいですし、ガムでもチロルチョコでもいいので何か買ってあげてトイレを維持できる経費に協力してあげるとお店側はありがたいですね。関係ねぇとか言ってるやつは自分家のトイレか公衆トイレを使ってください。

  — @hondoutomohiro571783 likes

• It's depressing that this has to be said out loud. A convenience store toilet is not the same thing as a public toilet…

  こんなことをわざわざ言わなければいけない社会に呆れる。 コンビニのトイレは公衆トイレとは違うんだよ、、、

  — @Ryota0930362 likes

• The people calling the store stingy are the stingiest ones here, lol

  セコイ言うてる奴が一番セコイww

  — @田中-g6g1,064 likes

• I mean, the staff aren't the ones paying the bills, so why would they care.

  いやそりゃ店員は経費払わないんだからどうでもいいでしょ

  — @rurly21 likes

• Convenience store clerk here. I'm amazed how decent the comments are! At my store nearly half the people walk out without buying anything. And it's always those same people who leave a pile of trash behind and dump the magazines back any old way after standing there reading them. Disposing of that trash costs money, and the magazines are stock we're supposed to sell. This isn't your house.

  コンビニ店員です。 こんなに良心的なコメントが多いのにビックリしました！まだ日本はすてたものじゃないですね！ウチの店は半数近くが何も買わずに出て行きますね。そういう人に限ってゴミも山ほど置いてくし、立ち読みの後の雑誌も適当に放り出して帰って行く。ゴミを処分するのもお金かかってるし雑誌だって売り物です！あなたの家ではないんですよ？と言いたいです！自己中な考え方はやめて欲しいです

  — @ころママ-q1z17 likes

• I try to buy something whenever I use the toilet, but when I'm really in a rush and there's a long line at the register, sometimes I end up slipping out with a mental "sorry!" and nothing in my hands…

  トイレ借りたらできるだけ買うようにはしてるけど、どうしても急いでる時とかにレジたくさん並んでると「ごめんなさい💦」って何も買わずに出ちゃうことも…。

  — @にゃんこ-x3r7 likes

• Convenience store employee here. You don't actually have to buy anything — just leave the toilet clean. It's only a small minority, but the state some people leave it in is a real problem for us.

  コンビニ従業員です。 別に買わなくてもいいので トイレ綺麗に使ってほしい。 ごく一部の人でめちゃくちゃ汚れて使われるので、本当に困ります。

  — @hakutou89-10419 likes

• Using the toilet, buying something, not buying anything — either is fine by me. It's nice if you buy something. But please, just don't make a mess. Toilets covered in vomit, or so soaked it's like someone showered in there… come on. Use it the way you'd use the one at home. (From a convenience store clerk.)

  トイレ使うのも、買い物してもしなくてもどちらでもいい。何か買ってくれたら嬉しい☺️でもね…汚すのだけは勘弁💦ゲ◯まみれのトイレ掃除とか、水浴びた？ってくらいびしょびしょのトイレとか…どうなの？って思う。家と同じように使って欲しいなぁ😢（コンビニ店員より）

  — @chi-men327328 likes

• First of all, a convenience store is a business, not a public convenience. The store has every right to refuse. And basic decency is to say "excuse me, could I use your toilet?", then buy something on the way out and say thank you — that's the consideration Japanese people value. If customers can't manage that, stores may as well ban toilet use altogether.

  先ずコンビニは営業店舗であって公衆便所ではない。 店がトイレを貸さないという権利もあるし、そもそも『すみません、ちょっとトイレ貸してください』とか使った後は何か買って『ありがとう』と帰るのが人としての基本だし日本人が大事にしてる思いやりの心だと思う。 そういうのが分からない客ばかりならトイレ利用禁止にしてしまっていいと思う。

  — @chinnmi112 likes

• There are convenience stores that have stopped letting people use the toilet. The ones that put up a notice before it gets to that point are being kind.

  トイレを使えなくしているコンビニ、ありますね。 貸し出し不可になる前に、張り紙してくれるコンビニ、親切ですね。

  — @asuka-dd5im129 likes

• If you're only going to use the toilet, go use a park, is what it comes down to.

  トイレだけ借りんなら公園使えよってなるわな。

  — @たかやんひっく62 likes

Do you have to buy something to use a convenience store toilet in Japan?

There is no rule or law requiring it — commenters say so explicitly (479 likes) — but the consensus in this thread is that you buy something anyway. The most-liked version (979 likes): they are lending you a clean toilet for free, so at least buy a drink. A minority of staff disagree; one employee with 419 likes says buying is optional, keeping it clean is not.

Are convenience store toilets in Japan free?

Yes, where they are offered. No major chain charges for them as of mid-2026. Lawson, which has declared its toilets open to the public since 1997, estimates about one million people use its toilets each day and about 10 million rolls of toilet paper a year, and its 2025 survey found roughly 40% of those users come in only for the toilet.

What should you buy after using a konbini toilet?

Small and cheap is fine. Commenters name a bottled tea or canned coffee as the default (281 likes), and others list gum, a Tirol chocolate, trash bags, or a ballpoint pen (232 and 83 likes). One commenter was raised on the rule by her mother: gum, or just a drink, but buy something (37 likes).

What if the store has no toilet, or it's locked?

Some stores have stopped lending theirs, and commenters note the considerate ones post a notice before it comes to that (129 likes). If you can't see the toilet, ask at the counter — the phrase in the thread is "Sumimasen, toire o kashite kudasai" (112 likes). Otherwise commenters point you to a park (62 likes); stations and department stores also have free toilets.