Toilet paper with a horror story from the author of "Ring"

Hayashi Paper Co. sells toilet paper that is printed with "Drop," a horror story written by Koji Suzuki, writer for "Ring" and "Spiral." An English version is coming soon.

The product is made by Hayashi Paper Co., a firm in Shizuoka Prefecture with a staff of around 30. It is the brainchild of Hiroyuki Hayashi, president of Hayashi Paper, who contacted Suzuki and rolled out the idea. The popular author then agreed to write a short story for the roll. It is expected that some people will buy the product as a keepsake due to its gimmicky nature, while others will use it to take care of more pressing business.

The trade ministry, recognizing the toilet paper as a “Cool Japan” product with a distinctive feature, is getting behind attempts to develop sales channels for the quirky item. On June 14, trade minister Yukio Edano met with Hayashi and Suzuki and offered words of encouragement.

“I hope you will generate more ideas like this,” said Edano as he checked out the product. Visually that is.

'Scary' toilet paper coming soon to a stall near you (via Naked Capitalism)

• [mat catastrophe]

  Um, so if you don’t live alone you’re going to end up missing big chunks of story?

  Well, at least, I *hope* you end up missing them….

  “Hey Dave, I left Chapter 4 on the wall for you! Hope you can read it all.”

• [TMWaH]

  Interesting gimmick, though I’m surprised they didn’t use it to print “Dark Water”.

  …sometimes, the jokes write themselves.

• [technogeekagain]

  Yeah, you’d sorta have to have multiple copies if you expect to have guests.

  On the other hand, it does sorta address those of us who bring in reading material. On the other other hand, it’s sorta hard to read more than a few paragraphs at a time; a sequence of short stories (or short-shorts)  might have been a better idea.

  Horror ain’t my thing. At least, not what passes for horror these days;  I’ve liked some older work. So if I bought this, it would be as a comment upon the genre.

• [Adam Greenfield]

  I bought some, scared the shit right out of me.

• [Ladyfingers]

  “Ring”, “Drop” and “Spiral”?

  Fnar, fnar.

  • [Bobsyeruncle]

    LOL

    Kind of reminds me of the kids games you could be playing, instead:  Concentration, Aggravation, Hang On Harvey and Ker-Plunk!

• [S.V.Ramanan]

  That’s a Swiping Story!

• [AnthonyI]

  I’m waiting for the double-ply version of “Atlas Shrugged”. 

  • [zarray]

    that’d be a life time supply, even if it were tripple-ply

• [yupgiboy]

  You forgot “Loop”, the final book in the “Ring” trilogy (and for my money, the best one).  And shouldn’t it be ‘Author of “Ring” and “Spiral”‘ instead of ‘writer for’?

  Nitpicking: off.

  This excites me to no end. I’ll buy a roll or two.

• [Martin Liebermann]

  Showed this to my gf who works in a library. She says they won’t order this, their toilets are enough of a horror story by themselves.

• [Bashtarle]

  Well they certainly managed to do what no other writers in the industry have been able to do. Stop the secondhand market dead in its tracks. 

  I doubt, no, I pray I never run across used copies of these. 

• [Dimmer]

  Finally I can replace my Robert Heinlien paperbacks with something that doesn’t just spread the “stuff” around so much…

• [pebird]

  Free toilet paper with ads. Maybe keep our stalls properly stocked.

• [wilmcdaniel]

  Give me ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ on TP and I’m in. 

• [tristan eldritch]

  Being somewhat of a schoolboy at heart, my headline for this story would have been more along the lines of:

  “Toilet Paper Emblazoned with the Nightmare of the Ring.”

  • [Kay Shapero]

    Nibelung or “Preciousssssssss”…? :)

• [Beanolini]

  Is it also printed on the other side of the paper for the 30-40% who prefer the ‘under’ orientation?