Flushed with embarrassment: Japan’s oldest toilet damaged in car crash

Officials say the damage can be repaired

The oldest existing toilet in Japan, dating back 500 years, has been damaged after a car, driven by employee of an organisation which protects heritage buildings, crashed into it.

A 30-year-old man - who works for the Kyoto Heritage Preservation Association - rammed his vehicle into the tosu facilities on the grounds of Tofukuji temple in Kyoto.

Although no longer in use, the tosu toilet is an important cultural property that was built nearly 500 years ago at the Zen Buddhist temple in the first half of the Muromachi period.