Japan’s Toto marks 100 years with ‘gallery’ to showcase merits of Washlet shower toilet
Japan’s leading bidet manufacturer and a Tokyo architectural design firm have created a ‘whimsical showroom’ at Narita airport targeting international travellers ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
It is unusual to find all your dinner party guests in the bathroom at the same time but when Kyoko Maeda mentioned she had installed a Toto Washlet shower toilet in her Hong Kong apartment, her guests – a mix of expatriates and local Chinese – crowded in to admire its heated seat, warm-water bidet function and deodorising technology.
The “all-singing, all-dancing” toilet may be revolutionary in Hong Kong but it is a common sight in Japan where 77 per cent of homes have one or more.
The price tag is often cited as a reason why the rest of the world has taken longer to succumb to its obvious charms but some cultures are also less willing to discuss bathroom preferences, making it harder to sell the merits of oscillating movements, massage or gentle drying technologies. Many people are also put off by the landing strip of buttons or the way some toilet models’ seats automatically rise as you approach.
That may all be about to change as Toto, Japan’s leading manufacturer, has embarked on a venture designed to win the hearts and minds (and other bodily parts) of travellers through a whimsical “gallery” that doubles as a showroom at Narita airport.
The project is a collaboration between the Narita Airport Authority, which is upgrading the airport’s facilities in preparation for the 2020 Olympics, and Toto, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2017.
The Tokyo-based designers, Klein Dytham Architecture, conceived the gallery as a clear glass box with four toilets each for men and woman, a toilet for disabled access and a nursing room.