Posted on 05/30/2025 1:04:04 AM PDT by Cronos
In 1982, a peculiar commercial aired on televisions across Japan.
An actress in a pink floral dress and an updo drops paint on her hand and futilely attempts to wipe it off with toilet paper. She looks into the camera and asks: “Everyone, if your hands get dirty, you wash them, right?”
“It’s the same for your bottom, deserve to be washed, too.”
...43yrs later, Japan has overwhelmingly accepted Toto’s innovation. Washlet-style bidets, sold by Toto and a few smaller rivals, are a common feature in Japan’s offices and public restrooms and account for >80% of all household toilets, according to government surveys.
Toto now sees a similar shift emerging in the United States.
After decades of trying to persuade leery American consumers of the merits of bidets, Toto Washlets have become something of a social phenomenon — popping up on social media tours of five-star hotels and celebrity homes. The comedian Ali Wong devoted a segment of her 2024 Netflix special to Toto’s “magical Japanese toilet.” In 2022, the rapper Drake gifted four Totos to the artist DJ Khaled.
An industry report last year showed that more than two in five renovating homeowners in the United States are choosing to install toilets with specialty features, including bidet toilet seats. Toto’s profits in its Americas housing equipment business have grown more than eightfold over the past five years — and the company has its sights on expanding even more.
...Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Canada, experienced Washlets for the first time during a recent trip to Japan.
Initially, he was apprehensive. “It’s not a region of your anatomy that you’re used to having sprayed for most of us,” Mr. Gregory said. “I think fairly quickly you realize that North American toilets are vastly inferior.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A sink / vegetable washing hose and spray nozzle, installed next to your toilet also works well. Discovered this in Thailand ,years ago .
I did 20+ years of business in Japan. Initially I was faced with a porcelain “ditch” on the floor. A Norden bombsight would have come in handy!
Years later, the Toto’s became fashionable.
A pro tip however - when you had an evening of a Japanese business dinner with the perquisite drinking, that’s no time to experiment with the toilet’s many control buttons
There’s the joke about the drunk guy who presses the “tampon removal” button :-P
Curious as to what the cost is, and I guess you use toilet paper to dry yourself off? Or maybe there is blow dryer option. My mother was French and when I took my wife there bidets were pretty common, my wife thought they were great. Used mostly by women.
My sister clued me in to the merits of bidet seats (you can buy them on Amazon or other places....they’re not that expensive). I was a bit leery at first. My brother visited her house and tried it out and immediately went and bought one himself. I visited her and tried it out and I’m now convinced of their merits.
Its more sanitary and you don’t use a vast amount of toilet paper. The deluxe models even have heated water (trust me, you want this).
Dan - there is a blow dryer option
Blow drier option for sure. Also heated seat.
I bought one 5 years ago, I am a convert.
I tried the Toto super deluxe model ($300 simoleons + installation) at a friend’s place for the first time a decade ago, decided to spend $30 for my very own toilet seat attachment. The reduction in toilet paper use meant it paid for itself in the very first year, since I installed it myself. Very reluctant to go for the heated model, since electricity + water are not a natural pairing in safety terms.
Frankly I’m a big fan of those. On our honeymoon back in the day the hotel had one, and after a little bit of surprise and embarrassment I decided they were the sh!t. So we got one and installed it at home. A simple one that just replaces the toilet seat. Needed to run some electricity behind the toilet to plug it in, but otherwise it just screws right into the existing plumbing and on the existing bowl. We just got a fairly straightforward model. But the high end ones that replace the entire toilet and have all the, ahem, bells and whistles, can run up to $20,000 a piece. I think Hillary and Whoopi have those models. I think Joy Behar needs one.
Great. No need for toilet paper then. I need to replace one of the toilets in our house. I’m giving this some serious thought.
I was thinking about the savings from eliminating toilet paper which is not cheap anymore, and every time there is some sort of crisis, toilet paper is the first thing to fly off of the shelves. And the occasional person who uses too much and clogs the toilet.
My wife is from Thailand and to prepare for her arrival I bought two of the Lux bidet seats and installed them. Even though they aren’t heated and even throughout the Michigan winters, it’s still just fine. Works great. Wish they had them at my workplace. Easier than the bum-gun they have in Thailand, which while nice, can be awkward to use properly.
I am using inside commode bidet for 3 years. Can never go back to paper only.
No more itchy butt hole 😂
I am saving 75% on toilet paper with the bidet water squirt. Use a small amount of paper to dab dry. That’s it.
Yep it’s the greatest thing in the world. Certainly their popularity may increase here because the strong dollar and weak yen has resulted in record numbers of tourists visiting Japan. Works perfectly and in Japan they are even in public restrooms.
TMI dude
We have a septic system and got traditional bidets because my wife couldn’t use her flushable wipes. I’m a fan of all of this.
Also, if you need the blow dryer function, consider getting a wax.
or stinky fingers
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