The nine public toilets featured in the movie were built to help welcome visitors to Japan as part of the planned Summer Olympics in 2020. As the pandemic delayed the Olympics, Koji Yannai, a senior executive for Fast Retailing (known for its Uniqlo brand) sought a way to still make the toilets known internationally, contacted several screenwriters and advertisers, leading to the idea of having a well-known film director produce a documentary about these toilets. Given an invitation to produce the documentary, Wim Wenders decided to make a feature instead.
Shot in only 17 days.
Official submission of Japan for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, making it the first time a movie not directed by a Japanese filmmaker is nominated as the Japanese entry.
The books Hirayama read includes The Wild Palms by William Faulkner, Tree(s) by Aya Koda and Eleven by Patricia Highsmith.
The screenplay took only three weeks to be written.