Kanben: a Japanese word for looking at your poop before you flush

A short guide · Updated September 24, 2026

In Japan there's a word for the quick look you take before you flush: kanben (観便). It isn't a medical test, and it isn't a ritual. It's a small everyday habit, like glancing at the sky before you leave the house. You look, you notice, you flush, and you get on with your day.

What does the word mean?

Kanben is two characters. 観 (kan) means look or view. 便 (ben) means stool. Put together, kanben is, quite literally, "looking at your stool." A group of doctors in Japan describe the habit as getting to know your usual pattern, much as you know your usual body temperature. Knowing that pattern can make changes easier to notice.

Where does it show up in everyday life?

It starts early. At many Japanese nurseries, parents and teachers pass a small notebook back and forth every day. Along with temperature, meals and naps, there's a line for poop. Ordinary information, written down without fuss.

The best-known Japanese picture book on the subject was first published in 1977 and is simply called Everyone Poops (Minna Unchi). It has been translated into 18 languages. Its author has said that children write to him with things like "I look at poop too," or to tell him about their poop diaries.

In elementary school, a nonprofit has run "poop classes" since 2007, with a downloadable poop diary for kids to fill in. The same group makes a one-week "poop check" sheet with seven cartoon poop shapes. Children circle the one they saw, and whole schools have filled it out together. In recent years the group has also run "Unchi Week" (Poop Week) each November, from the 10th to the 19th, ending on the UN's World Toilet Day, asking people to check what kind of poop they have for a week.

Even the toilets help. Traditional Japanese squat toilets collect waste in a shallow trough rather than a deep bowl of water. Western-style toilets are more common in homes now, but many schools, temples and train stations still have squat toilets. With a design like that, you'd have to try not to look.

Knowing yourself, not judging yourself

Notice what the school sheet is: seven drawings, seven days, and a circle. Not a grade. The nonprofit describes Poop Week as a time to know the state of your own body and think about your health. That is the spirit of kanben. You're not checking whether you passed. You're getting to know what's usual for you, so that you'll recognize it when something is different.

That matters, because usual is different for different people. In a large U.S. health survey, about 96% of adults who called their bowel habits normal went anywhere from three times a day to three times a week. (More on that in How often should you poop?) Everyone's normal is different. Kanben is how you learn yours.

Why it feels unusual in America

Many Americans don't talk about poop, even with a doctor. The American Gastroenterological Association says one in five people would rather search online for information about gut problems than talk about them. In a 2020 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, half said they rarely, if ever, talk about it, and just over half wished they knew more about it. In a 2026 Harris Poll of about 2,100 U.S. adults, fewer than half said they felt very comfortable discussing their poop habits with a health care provider.

There's nothing wrong with being private about it. Kanben is private too. Nobody else has to know that you looked. But when a subject is never talked about, many people never learn what's usual for them, and have no words for it when it changes.

Why Porcelain exists

Porcelain is made by one person, Yoshitaka Nakao, an independent developer in Japan. The idea is to bring over the quiet middle ground of kanben: a habit of noticing, with no judgment attached, and a log that stays on your own phone. Your logs stay on your iPhone. The developer doesn't receive them, and neither does anyone else. It's kanben, with a place to write it down.

Kanben with Porcelain, in three steps

Look. Before you flush, take a three-second look. Which of the seven shapes is closest? That's all you need to know.
Tap the shape. Open Porcelain and tap it. Add a photo or today's habits if you like; skip them if you don't. On a day without one, tap "No poop today." Those days count too.
After 7 logged days, see your normal. Porcelain shows how often you usually go and the shape you see most. The seven days don't have to be in a row. Porcelain never calls a poop good or bad. It's just what your logs show.

When to talk to a doctor

Blood in your stool, black or tarry stools, pale stools that last more than a few days, a change in your bowel habits that doesn't go away, or ongoing belly pain are worth checking with a healthcare professional. Many causes are not serious, but only a clinician can tell. Get emergency care for heavy bleeding, or bleeding with dizziness, fainting or trouble breathing. A log is not a substitute for recommended screening.

Prefer paper?

Kanben doesn't need an app. Print the two-week kanben card: the seven shapes, fourteen days, and a circle a day. It's the same idea as the school sheet, for grown-ups.

Keeping track, privately

Porcelain is a poop log for iPhone with no account and no ads. Your logs stay on your iPhone, and only you decide what to share.

See your pattern after 7 logged days.

This guide is general information, not medical advice. Porcelain is for personal record-keeping and is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Check with a doctor before making medical decisions.

Sources

Jisho.org. Kanji 観 ("outlook, look, appearance, condition, view") and 便 ("convenience, facility, excrement, feces, letter, chance"). 観 · 便
Japan Poop Society (日本うんこ学会). What is kanben (観便とは). August 1, 2020. In Japanese. unkogakkai.jp
Hoiku-is. How to write a nursery contact notebook (連絡帳): temperature, bowel movements, meals and sleep as daily entries. Updated April 2, 2025. In Japanese. hoiku-is.jp
Nippon.com. Gomi Tarō: the "Everyone Poops" author looks back on a life in picture books. nippon.com
Japan Toilet Labo (NPO). Poop classes (うんち教室) in elementary schools, since 2007. In Japanese. toilet.or.jp
Japan Toilet Labo. Poop check (うんちチェック): a seven-day record sheet for elementary school students. June 9, 2022. In Japanese. toilet-magazine.jp
Japan Toilet Labo. Unchi Week (うんちweek), November 10–19. In Japanese. toilet-magazine.jp
Wikipedia. Toilets in Japan (squat toilet design and where they are still common). wikipedia.org
American Gastroenterological Association. Trust Your Gut ("Know your normal"; one in five would rather search online). patient.gastro.org
Pollfish survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, commissioned by Pendulum Therapeutics, a probiotics company. November 17, 2020. prnewswire.com
The Harris Poll survey of 2,091 U.S. adults, conducted January 22–26, 2026, for Oshi Health, a digestive-health care company. globenewswire.com
Mitsuhashi S, et al. Characterizing normal bowel frequency and consistency in a representative sample of adults in the United States (NHANES). American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2018. PubMed
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms of colorectal cancer. cdc.gov