Toilet firm flush with sales
Report: Over 40% of updates by US homeowners installed bidets with special features
By River Akira Davis and Kiuko Notoya The New York Times
KITAKYUSHU, Japan — 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,” she says. “Bottoms deserve to be washed too.”
The commercial was advertising the Washlet, a new type of toilet seat with a then-unheard-of function: a small wand that extended from the back of the rim and sprayed water up. After the ad’s release, Toto, the Washlet’s maker, was deluged with calls and letters from viewers shocked by the concept. They were also angry that it was broadcast during evening prime time, when many were having dinner.
Four decades 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 more than 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. Comedian Ali Wong devoted a segment of her 2024 Netflix special to Toto’s “magical Japanese toilet.” In 2022, rapper Drake gifted four Totos to artist DJ Khaled.
An industry report last year showed that more than 2 in 5 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.
“I could have never imagined how popular Washlets would become overseas,” said Shinya Tamura, Toto’s president. But as was the case with Washlets in Japan, “once the fire is lit, they tend to hit a J curve,” he said.
The Toto Washlet first appeared in 1980. At the time, the product had three primary functions: washing, drying and a heated seat. It was expensive, costing the equivalent of about $2,000 in today’s currency, and early models were known to sometimes spray inspectors in the face.
The Japanese public was slow to warm to the devices. It took Toto 18 years to sell its first 10 million Washlets.
But Toto added features — deodorizing in 1992 and automatic flushing and lid opening in 2003 — and sales picked up.
In current models, the water spray is kept at a precise 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature the company describes as “warm but not surprising.”
The company saw a big shift in sales when the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. During nationwide lockdowns, Americans struggling to get toilet paper began flocking to Washlets. In 2020, Toto Washlet sales in North America nearly doubled from the year prior. That boom has carried forward, Tamura said.
Toto has also benefited from tourists to Japan becoming converts.
Below is the commercial that is referenced in the above article.
Link to video
