トイレットペーパー

Loanword from English 'toilet paper.' Written in katakana. The standard everyday word — more specific than 紙(かみ) ('paper') and used when the object is the roll of bathroom tissue.

USAGE:
Used in shopping, housekeeping, and product contexts. Japanese households and public restrooms expect toilet paper to be provided. It is flushed down the toilet rather than placed in a wastebasket, so Japanese toilet paper is designed to dissolve in water (a point of confusion for visitors from countries with different plumbing conventions).

COMMON COLLOCATIONS:

• トイレットペーパーを買(か)う: to buy toilet paper
• トイレットペーパーがなくなる: to run out of toilet paper
• トイレットペーパーを交換(こうかん)する: to replace the toilet paper (roll)
• トイレットペーパーの芯(しん): the cardboard tube of a toilet paper roll
• 二重(にじゅう)のトイレットペーパー: two-ply toilet paper
• トイレットペーパーの買(か)い占(し)め: hoarding toilet paper

SIMILAR WORDS:

• ティッシュペーパー: tissue paper (facial tissues) — boxed, for nose/face, not for toilet use
• ちり紙(がみ): tissue paper; pocket tissue — older term, used for both nose and toilet in earlier times
• トイレ: toilet; bathroom — the room or fixture
• 水洗(すいせん)トイレ: flush toilet

CULTURAL NOTE:
In Japanese supermarkets, toilet paper is sold in large multi-roll packs and is a common sale item. Panic buying of toilet paper has occurred at several points in Japanese history — most famously during the 1973 oil crisis and again during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.