When you gotta go, you gotta go, but what if there’s nowhere to go? We hardly ever give the humble toilet a second thought in our day-to-day lives, but in war-torn regions and areas affected by natural disasters, toilets are among the most sought-after amenities. Apart from insufficient portable toilets and unhygienic bathrooms, there aren’t too many options. Now there’s a portable toilet that comes in a packet measuring just 2½ inches tall and 2½ inches wide that can fit into any pocket or purse. Yoshinori Kokenawa, the 30-year-old founder of Kokenawa, Inc., came up with the idea for the Pocketoilet while volunteering in the city of Nagano, which had been devastated by Typhoon Hagibis. One of the first things he noticed was the long lines of people waiting in front of conventional portable toilets. The wait was an average of 30 minutes, which is horrendous when you’ve got to go. In December of 2020, Kokenawa’s company launched the Pocketoilet, a tiny portable toilet that can be used virtually anywhere. It consists of a bag made of special, durable fibers and a packet of coagulant. The bag can be affixed to a toilet seat or even a trash can, and tests by the company have found that almost no odor emanates from the bags. So far, his company has sold about 50,000 Pocketoilets and has donated 6,000 to war-torn Ukraine.
