London (PTI): Buying movie tickets and paying power bills are among a string of increasingly popular uses for mobiles. Now, tech-savvy Japanese have found an unusual use for cell phones -- to locate the nearest public toilet.

Yes, thanks to a mobile phone software guiding users to the nearest lavatories, the trials as well as tribulations of searching for the nearest public loo have been eliminated in Japan, according to a report in the Mainichi Daily News.

The Check A Toilet programme, created by the software company Access Co, enables mobile phone users to search for maps highlighting the nearest public toilet to their location.

From train stations and beaches to department stores and parks, the software lists thousands of maps highlighting the location of public toilet, including details of facilities such as baby changing areas, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph quoted the leading Japanese daily as saying.

Users of the mobile lavatory locator are able to upload the free software from the Check A Toilet website whose toilet location database stretches across Japan, from Tokyo to the northern city of Sapporo, the report said.

The software reflects the continually growing importance of mobile phones in every day life in Japan, home to the largest mobile phone market in the world and where 50 million cell phones are sold every year.