Why Do Japan’s Most Successful CEOs Clean Their Own Toilets?
Here’s a scene that surprises a lot of visitors to Japan. The founder of a billion-dollar company — someone who could hire an army of…
Why Do Japan’s Most Successful CEOs Clean Their Own Toilets?
Here’s a scene that surprises a lot of visitors to Japan. The founder of a billion-dollar company — someone who could hire an army of cleaners — rolls up his sleeves and scrubs the office toilet himself.
It’s not a one-off eccentricity. In Japan, cleaning the toilet is quietly regarded as the most famous money-luck habit of all. And some of the country’s most legendary businesspeople have credited it for their success.
The god in the bathroom
Japanese folklore says there’s a deity living in your toilet.
Her name varies by region, but the idea is beautiful: the toilet god is said to be beautiful, and she blesses those who keep her domain spotless. There’s even a well-loved song about a grandmother telling her granddaughter that scrubbing the toilet every day will make her beautiful — and, the tradition adds, fortunate.
Behind this sits a deeper idea from Shinto: the concept of kegare (穢れ), or spiritual impurity, and the act of cleansing it away. The toilet is the most “unclean” place in the home. So — and here’s the elegant twist — cleaning the very dirtiest place becomes the single most powerful act of purification you can perform. The bigger the mess you’re willing to face, the bigger the fortune you invite.
📖 There are 35 of these Japanese money-luck rituals. See them all in one book →
The tycoons who swore by it
This isn’t just grandmothers and folk songs. Some of Japan’s most respected business founders were famous for personally cleaning toilets, and for insisting their employees do the same.
Their logic wasn’t mystical. They believed that a person willing to humbly clean the lowliest place is a person who notices details, stays grounded, and never thinks they’re above the work. Clean the toilet, and you clean something in yourself. Do that daily, they argued, and success follows.
Whether the money comes from a bathroom goddess or from the mindset the habit builds — the practitioners honestly don’t care. The results, they say, speak for themselves.
How to actually do it
The nice thing is you can try this tonight. There’s no special technique:
- Give the toilet a genuine clean — not a wipe, a clean.
- Keep it up: one quick minute a day, or a thorough scrub on weekends.
- And one small final touch that Japanese practitioners never skip — close the lid when you’re done, so the good fortune doesn’t drain away.
That’s it. No shrine, no chanting, no cost. Just the dirtiest job in the house, done with a little respect.
The bigger picture
Toilet cleaning is Japan’s headline money habit, but it belongs to a much larger family of practices — cleaning the entrance, wiping the kitchen sink dry at night, letting fresh air sweep through in the morning. In Japan, a clean home and an open flow of money are believed to be the same thing.
I gathered 35 of these Japanese money-luck rituals into one book. The toilet is Chapter 2 — and honestly, one of the most fun to try.
The Japanese Art of Money Luck
35 Traditional Japanese Practices for Money Luck and Prosperity — Book 1 of the Japanese Luck Rituals Series.
Available on Kindle and free with Kindle Unlimited.
New to Japanese money luck? Start here →
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