New museum will lift the lid on Japan’s obsession with hi-tech toilets

A new museum dedicated to a century of lavatories, from the first water flushing model to cutting-edge versions with odour-neutralisers and variable water jets, will open this week. The museum operated by TOTO – best known for its bidet-equipped Washlet series – opens its doors on Friday in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu, where the company is based. The toilet company is reaching back into its past with a replica of its first water flushing toilet seat, which came onto the market in 1914. There will also be remakes of washrooms that TOTO supplied to major buildings across Japan, including the State Guest House in downtown Tokyo, where foreign dignitaries stay, and those installed at a luxury hotel for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. High-tech toilets, common in Japan, regularly win praise from foreign tourists and celebrities as the epitome of Japanese know-how – a contraption that offers both comforting warmth and a frighteningly accurate bidet jet.

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