What’s Hot in Japanese Toilets?

“Your Mission: Extinguish a fire!”, says the sticker above the urinal. It is the latest in an arsenal of stealth weapons gaining popularity in Japan amongst toilet cleaner circles. Japanese Toilet Mission - Put out the fire! These Toilet Target Marker Stickers, play on a known male psychology by changing colour with the heat, as they are doused in urine. They are showing up in urinals around the country as their makers claim they keep toilets 76% cleaner.

Japanese GWN Series Toilet - Aim Here! Playing on that same psychology, Mastushita have really outdone themselves with their latest range of high-tech toilets. The GWN series unveiled a couple of weeks ago feature a LED light target projected from under the lip of the bowl to the middle of the target zone. This newest series, though not made of the same poo-repelling space age acrylic the that last iPod enabled models (CH1001M) were made of, do have toilet seats which heat to the optimum cheek bearing temperature of 29℃ in an impressive 6 seconds.

Japanese Toilet - Put out the fire! Japan is no stranger to preheated toilet seats, but in the age of global warming the company’s designers have lifted the bar in an effort to save energy and in so doing have created a seat which does not need to be heated 24 hours a day. Matsushita scientists deemed the ’29℃ in 6 seconds target’ optimal considering the time they had from when the toilet door opened and the on-board body heat sensor detected a potential user.

Naturally, with the recommended retail price of 135,450 Yen, the GWN’s will also come with the various other bog standard features we all expect of the modern Japanese toilet; automatic lids and seats, a self-cleaning stainless steal bidet/feminine wash nozzle, and wireless control panel preprogrammed with all your cleaning needs. Time to start thinking about Christmas gifts?

13 thoughts on “What’s Hot in Japanese Toilets?”

The Japanese never cease to amaze me with the things they come up with.

One other thing about Japanese toilets that has been around for donkey’s years is the tap on top of the cistern where you can rinse your hands after doing your business by using the water that is due to fill it up again after your flush. The timing of the water flow is impeccable, it starts just after you flush obviously, and is using water that is going to be flushed down the googler (literally). What a concept! But for some reason, this ingenious invention, after all the years it has been in Japan, still hasn’t caught on in western countries – anyone know why??

I think it’s pretty funny how stippy.com‘s search engine has suggested the J-WOTD entitled 力任せas a related article. Read into that what you will!

Man, my wife really needs one of these. She banned all tachi-shoben from day one of our marriage. I wonder if this would help me regain my freedom! That might actually be worth 7,000 yen…

Hopefully this doesn’t lead to a rise in drunk people relieving themselves in izakaya ashtrays.

The dunnies here really do amaze me though. The Inax catalog I was reading not only had the usual water jet, fan and warm seat, but had such *useful* features as built-in speakers to play music off an SD Card, antibacterial ion spray, an automatically opening lid and a light like that one shown in the photo here. They come at a hefty price though. I am pretty sure the 135,450 Yen price tag for the Panasonic product in the article is just for the seat. It costs around 300,000 yen for an Inax Satis with the options maxed out, and that doesn’t include installation and plumbing.

Some of these functions are fine but others are either overkill or just plain weird. I don’t need to listen to Bach and Chopin to get my bowels moving, and I certainly do not need a spotlight on the goods I have produced.

That’s even more amazing, a $1,000+ toilet seat! Where are the gems and precious metals?

Not sure how effective these really are. Everytime I see a pisser with a target like this on it like these it seems to be surrounded by a pool of collateral damage. Perhaps they only use them when there is a bit of poor marksmanship to begin with? Still, I’m not quite sure what the makers mean when they say that they keep toilets 76% cleaner? Unless 100% of users are hiting the target I can’t imagine the cleaners jobs would be getting any more enjoyable.

BTW, I like the google adds for the Japanese super toilets on the right of the page. When is someone going to do an article on those? Sounds like a mission for Pink, from fundoshi fame (http://www.stippy.com/japan-culture/fundoshi-all-they-are-cracked-up-to-be/)

“Bog-standard features…”
Wish I said that 🙂

There are also the toilets that start flushing as soon as you sit down. I always wondered what that was for, but I am told it is to cover up potentially embarrasing “noises”…

Apparently at Matsushita HQ they installed versions that just made the running-water-noise rather than actually using water. They saved hundreds of thousands of litres of water in the first year!

Yes, I’ve seen those water noise modules. Had them in my last company,but only in the womens toilets (don’t ask). There are lights on it which a show yo how much time remains before the noise stops… wouldn’t want to be caught short now would you!