Japan’s Complicated Toilets Will Be Made Simpler

Even if you’ve never been to Japan, you might have heard about the hi-tech toilets they have down there in the Land of the Rising Sun. They really are in a league of their own with features that are not commonly found on toilets anywhere else. They can also be very hard to figure out because the symbols seem foreign to people who don’t live there or don’t know the language. Fortunately, the consortium of companies that produce these hi-tech toilets has now decided to make them simpler.

The Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association consists of companies like Toshiba, Toto, and Panasonic who manufacture these hi-tech toilets. They have decided to make things simpler by using the same iconography on their products so that foreign tourists don’t have a hard time figuring out the controls on different toilets.

The companies will now use the eight new pictogram they have agreed on for all models released from 2017 onward and aim to make it an international standard even for features like bidets and warm air drying that aren’t widely available in toilets. The icons are simpler as well and should be easier to understand than before.

The icons displayed in the image above stand for (left to right) lid, raise the seat, large flush, small flush, rear spray, bidet, dry, and stop.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General