Japanese Revolution - Toilet Seats are Heating Up

09/01/2009

Japan has the most advanced toilets in the world. The brand that has created these remarkable toilets have made them so that they play you music, lift the toilet seat, and according to Toto literature “breaks down odorous molecules and returns clean air into the bathroom environment."

All the toilets also contain heated toilet seats, an ‘in-toilet’ nozzle that sprays out water and warm air through the toilet seat. Even the most standard lowliest toilet contains a bidet. The health of the owners can even be monitored by these toilet seats; they can measure your BMI, weigh you, and measure your blood sugar levels and blood pressure. All this from a toilet seat!

Even though these new toilets contain top of the range technology they don’t seem to have spread at any huge rate. Possibly because the toilet seats are controlled by a large, conceivably complicated key pad, which it appears many travellers to Japan have found hard to use to obtain the special features within the toilet seat. There are many stories of this sort of problem; foreigner goes into toilet and finds a high-tech control pad with Japanese symbols on it. The foreigner doesn’t understand the symbols and just presses any button, gets sprayed by the water nozzle, leaving the toilet and the toilet seat soaking.

It also comes up that there are certain manners and social graces that should be used in Japanese homes. When entering the house outdoors shoes must be removed and replaced by slippers, which will be provided by the homeowner. When using a toilet or bathroom you must use slippers specifically for that room these are left by the door.

These toilets and their heated toilet seats are present in almost 70% of Japanese homes so it seems hard to accept the idea that it is just another feature of Japanese eccentricity.