Japanese smart toilet, really cool!

The following articles are from Wave Studios Author Wave Studio

NetEase's columns give you another perspective and attitude to the world

Manage the long-term draft of the house! Email: jg@pinggu.org

Source:Wave Studio - NetEase's column, give you another way to see the world's perspective and attitude

Recently, the most affected ordinary people's heartstrings, in addition to the outbreak, I am afraid there are two major events: the Olympic Games postponed, toilet paper is almost gone.

Of course, many people may not know that both things are inextricably linked to a product, the Japanese toilet.

The Tokyo Olympics, originally planned for this year, are expected to attract 600,000 foreign visitors to Japan. This means not only that Japan's tourism industry will be injected into a strong vitality, but also that Japan has an opportunity to showcase itself to the world in every way.

As the world's leading "toilet power", Japan had planned to launch a new round of "toilet revolution" in 2020, and gradually "eliminate squatting toilets" in public places, and the Olympic Games is to export to the world "use of Japanese toilet" habits an important window period.

And when many people can't buy toilet paper, they will also think that if there is a smart Japanese toilet, perhaps there will be no such trouble.

Japanese toilet is good, used to know.

The first experience of the Japanese toilet,

It's overwhelming

We usually refer to the Japanese toilet, which is a smart warm flush toilet with an operator's panel.

Many first-time foreign tourists to Japan, perhaps will have such an experience: the toilet finished, lamenting that the bathroom is clean and odorless, but when carrying pants on the toilet side of a row of buttons with various symbols made a difficult. Cultural shock, actually in such a place to come out of time.

A toilet for volleyball and wheelchair basketball games at Ariake Arena, February 2, 2020, in Tokyo, Japan

Such buttons less said there are nearly 10, more can even reach 30 or more, more than the general mobile phone input method of the key bit.This is the first time, Japanese is likely not very skilled foreigners, has a considerable degree of impact - in the end which is the flush?

In 2017, the Japan Toilet Industry Association established a uniform logo that represents each function, with the aim of eliminating the cognitive burden on users.Even so, they left up to eight patterns.

On January 17, 2017, Madoka Kitamura, President of the Japan Health Equipment Industry Association, displayed a unified logo for high-tech toilet functions in Tokyo

To help first-time users of Japanese toilets avoid embarrassment, Toyo Pottery (TOTO), the Japanese toilet industry giant, has posted a tutorial on its official English-language page instructing Japanese toilet "first-timers" to find the three most critical keys: stop, hip flush and flush.

Ming Ming only need three keys to complete the most important function, must make the toilet so "confused" is also bitter?

But look closely and you'll find thatMore than 30 keys, of course, increase the complexity of operation, improve the threshold of use, but each key is their own job, to the user experience has been improved.

Take a TOTO product as an example, its 38 keystrokes involve the functions include: stool flushing, urinal flushing, seat lifting and closing, toilet cover opening and closing, hip cleaning, female private cleaning, blow-drying, nozzle regulation, temperature regulation, time-saving mode and deodorization, none of which is redundant.

A TOTO product has 38 buttons / Google

If you add a very Japanese characteristics, only in the women's toilet has the "yinji" function (through the toilet water to cover the sound of the toilet), the number of keys easily broke through the 40 mark.

So it's no wonder that foreign tourists are at a loss in the face of the Japanese toilet for a time. After all, in most parts of the world, toilets only carry the function of flushing. Even in areas where there is a habit of flushing your hips and private areas after urinating (e.g. in Europe), toilet visitors often need to move to a special "bidet" after "unloading" to complete the "closing work".

To be able to provide "one-stop service", so that users can sit still can complete a "relief" of the complete experience, is the Japanese toilet compared to foreign "peers" the most extraordinary.

TOTO, Apple in the toilet world

According to statistics released by japan's Cabinet Province in 2018,In Japan, known as the "warm water wash toilet", the household share reached more than 80%., slightly higher than the computer, much higher than 30% of the dishwasher.

That is to say, for Japanese families, computers are not essential, bowls can also be washed by themselves, but the toilet must be the whole one. Toilets have become the country's "national appliances".

Workers inspect a toilet in North Kyusju, Japan, February 6, 2020

TOTO has the largest share of the huge market demand, with a market share of about 60% in Japan in recent years.

Today, however, it is standard Japanese toilet for Japanese families, and its "birthplace" is in the United States, which is far from the ocean.

In 1964, American Arno Cohen patented the Smart Sprinkler toilet seat and founded his own company. At that time, the most common toilet in Japan was what we call "squatting toilets" and "toilets".

Cohen's products have been used by hospitals and welfare agencies to help people who don't have easy access to toilet paper (hemorrhoid patients, the frail), but the invention, which theoretically could lead to a new toilet experience, has not caused enough reaction in ordinary people. So he chose to license the patent to Japan.

In 1917, TOTO was established, originally known as Dongyang Pottery Co., Ltd. / TOTO official website

In 1967, INAX pioneered the domesticization of "warm water washing seats" in Japan, and two years later TOTO did the same.

Initially, the Japanese people also feel that "sitting on" the toilet is very strange, some technical problems have not been solved, often consumers because of unstable water temperature, nozzle angle is not suitable and other issues such as complaints or requests for returns.

Fortunately, however, toilet makers have caught up with a good time.

As Japan's economy took off in the 1960s, a large number of new buildings were uprooted in the city centre, with Western-style tables, chairs and toilets "flying into ordinary people's homes".

After World War II, TOTO began manufacturing metal parts, faucets and ceramics. Since then, bathroom products have gradually developed into TOTO's core business / TOTO official website

In 1977, in the toTO shipments, "warm water wash toilet" for the first time with the "and toilet" chamber, by 2013, the latter in the TOTO shipments accounted for only 1%.

The fate of a company, of course, to consider the course of history, their own efforts are also crucial.TOTO's ambition is not just to take advantage of the spring breeze of the times, they also want to be the leader of the times.

In order to allow users to sit in the toilet in the most comfortable position, in the absence of a wide range of data collection channels, TOTO summoned 300 employees of its own company to "try to sit" and based on the recorded data to calculate the average suitable for most people to use.

A cleaning sprinkler design to clean sitting tub toilet users / Google

On the issue of water temperature and nozzle angle, TOTO after a long period of exploration and testing, developed a "golden law" - water temperature should be 38 degrees Celsius, nozzle angle should be 43 degrees, and continue to date.

In 1980, TOTO released washlets, smart toilet lids with warm flushing that can also be installed on regular toilets.

In the 1980s, when TOTO introduced the country's first electric toilet seat in toilet technology, it was called a "washlet"

In order to make the concept of "paper alone is not enough" more popular, TOTO also in 1982 to find well-known actress Tokawa pure shooting prime-time advertising.

The image of the lovely Tokawa pure ass to say "even the ass to wash" the picture makes people can't help but, but also let this sentence in the controversy has become the year's popular advertising language. In today's words, TOTO is finally "out of the ring".

Tokawa pure advertising for the TOTO toilet / YouTube

Toto, which has been a great success in its promotion, has made one breakthrough after another in technology.

In 1987, the release of the first "one-in-one" Wei Shuli;

In 1992, with the "ozone deodorization" function of the Wei Shuli was born;

In 1993, "no water tank" design was born;

In 1995, the introduction of portable bathrooms that can also be used on the go;

In 1999, the water wave massage function was added to Wei Shuli;

In 2000, the realization of the automatic opening and close and automatic flushing of wei shuli;

In 2011, the development of electrolytic water to achieve sterilization of the "ewater plus" technology;

In 2012, the thickness of the toilet lid was reduced to 4 inches...

TOTO's constant introduction of new technologies / TOTO's Challenge in Breaking into Mainstream America

At the same time, TOTO has not forgotten to work hard in water conservation, through improving the water tank, increase ceramic flatness, change the way of flushing and other means, the latest TOTO toilet water consumption per flush has been less than 4 liters. By contrast, at the end of last year, Mr. Trump was still spitting out america's toilets without saving water, "to flush 10-15 times to flush clean."

Driven by the spirit of artisans, the TOTO toilet industry, which has been booming with the rise of the bubble economy, has not fallen into a low ebb with the bursting of the bubble. In March last year, TOTO's cumulative shipments reached 50 million units.Today, it's hard to find public places in Japan that don't have TOTO toilets.

TOTO's position in the toilet industry is no less than that of Apple in the field of digital products. TOTO ranked 81st in the "2020 Graduates' Willingness to Work" ranking published by a Japanese website, ahead of many well-known Japanese companies such as Yomiuri Shimiuri, Nissan Motor Co., NHK, and Nintendo.

Japanese toilets, why not accept the water and soil overseas

In December 2005, Madonna, who had returned to Japan after 12 years, said in an interview that she missed the warm Japanese toilet.

This is an affirmation of the comfort of the Japanese toilet, but it also reflects the fact that:Twenty-two years on, Japanese toilets are still not a mainstream product in the region.

In fact, in 2017, only a quarter of TOTO's sales came from outside Japan, with Asia contributing 75% (52% in China), only 22% of overseas sales coming from the Americas and only 3% in Europe.

The cumulative sales volume of Wei Shuli. Sales began in 1980 and more than 50 million units / TOTO have been sold in 2019

Why in the domestic growth of the "top stream" of the Japanese toilet, in foreign countries will encounter the "failure of the road" of the bumpy fate?

Fortune columnist Michael Skapink summed it up as "three Cs"Cost, Culture, and Current.

On the product page of TOTO's official U.S. website, it's not hard to find that if you want to install a smart toilet lid at home, you have to pay at least 500 U.S. dollars (about 3,500 yuan), and some high-end prices even reached more than 4,000 U.S. dollars (about 28,000 yuan), which is enough to make many ordinary families "the toilet together to live on the line" idea.

Installing a smart toilet lid at home costs $500 (about 3,500 yuan), and the high cost is a big surprise to many people

Culturally, the "warm water-washed toilet" is popular in Japan, which is very clean and tidy, but in Europe, although many families have a habit of using body-cleaning devices, it is still a fresh concept.

In addition, to reverse the concept of "wipe with paper" to "flush with water" is not a change that can be made overnight.

On February 6, 2020, a display at the Toto Museum in North Kyusju, Japan, introduces how toilets work

Often overlooked but also crucial, the notion that "water and electricity must be scored off" remains deeply rooted in many parts of the world, despite the waterproof design of their products by Japanese toilet manufacturers, including TOTO. Away from the socket, the Japanese toilet is no better.

So it's not hard to imagine why the Japanese toilet industry values the Tokyo Olympics so much.

After the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the flush toilet began to walk into every ordinary Japanese family.Another Olympic Games is likely to be a starting point for the Japanese toilet to truly go global.

Another magic change, however, is that people outside Japan may already be aware of the goodness of The Japanese toilet in the face of a shortage of toilet paper. In the United States, for example, interest in "Japanese toilets" has been at an all-time high over the past few weeks.

Life has been so difficult, with the transformation of the toilet a small step, in exchange for a big step to improve the happiness of the toilet, why not?

[1]Richarz, A. (2019, October 1). The Tokyo 2020 Olympics: What You Need to Know. New York Times.

[2]Murakami, S. (2020, February 24). Japan's next restroom revolution? Phasing out squat toilets for Tokyo 2020. The Japan Times.

[3]Samuelson, K. (2017, January 18). Japan’s Confusing Toilets Are About to Get Simpler. Fortune.

[4] TOTO. (n.d.). Guide to Japanese toilet.

[5]Toilets in Japan. (2020, March 19). In Wikipedia.

6]How to Use a Bidet. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2020 from wikiHow.

[7] Toilet navigation. (n.d.) Energy saving of hot water washing toilet seat. Eco in the toilet.

[8]Brasor, P. & Tsubuku, M. (2012, February 12). Automatic dishwashers: the square peg in the round hole of Japanese kitchens. The Japan Times.

[9] Kitakyushu. (2017, November 11). Japan’s top two lavatory-makers are at last making inroads overseas. The Economist.

[10]Hart, M.T. (2018, March 18). The Bidet's Revival. The Atlantic.

[11] Toilet navigation. (n.d.) Toilet year table. The history of toilets.

[12]Ueda, M. (2015, February 13). TOTO Have Changed the Japanese. Tokyo Business Today.

[13]Nogata, DJ. (2014, April 17). Do you Washlet? TOTO’s Challenge in Breaking into Mainstream America [PowerPoint slides]. TOTO AMERICAS HOLDINGS, Inc.

[14] Koichiro Hagino. (2016, May 17). Jun Togawa CM 1982 TOTO Washlet I want you to wash your butt [Video].

[15]CNN. (2019 December 7). Trump claims Americans need to flush the toilet '10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once' [Video].

[16] Toto. (2019, April 3). 38 years since its launch in June 1980 Monthly Washlet 1 cumulative shipments topped 50 million units - Toilet culture grown in Japan, sales are strong overseas.

[17] Disco Co., Ltd. (n.d.) Announced! What is the most popular company chosen by job-hunting students who graduated in 2020?

Ranking of companies looking for employment: Comprehensive compilation.

[18]Mikami, K. (2007, May 14). Toto hoping Americans will warm to bidet-toilet. The Japan Times.

[19]Skapinker, M. (2019, May 27). Frequent flyer: why hasn’t the Japanese toilet taken off?. Financial Times.

[20]TOTO. (n.d.) . Washlet.

The horse. (December 1, 2017) Overview: Japan's "toilet culture" face. Xinhua.

[22]Knibbs, K. (2020, March 17). As Toilet Paper Flies off Shelves, Bidet Sales Go Boom-Boom. Wired

After the end of the new crown that changed the world landscape,
Will China face the same world?

5 years, 6,500 articles by the Public Number of the House of Management,

Here is a rich and comprehensive management knowledge base and financial treasure chest

Home Long-Term Drafts Email: jg@pinggu.org

Japanese smart toilet, really cool!

sent to have a look

Related articles to this post