Japan asks residents to stop hoarding toilet paper amid coronavirus fears

Japanese officials tried to flush away “rumors” of a coronavirus-fueled toilet paper shortage in the country Friday, according to reports.

Residents should quit stockpiling rolls because the country’s supply is strong — despite reports that it has been nearly wiped out, industry ministry officials said, according to the local outlet NKH.

Last week, panicked Japanese folks rushed to stores to buy the bathroom staple as reports surfaced that the country can’t produce enough of it.  Raw materials needed to make the paper couldn’t be imported from coronavirus-plagued China, the reports said.

Toilet paper honchos discredited those reports Friday.

“That’s fake news,” one manufacturer told the Global Times. “[Our] supplies have nothing to do with China.”

Outside Japan, in Hong Kong, armed robbers held up a delivery driver last week and swiped hundreds of rolls of toilet paper as the city faced a shortage.