Make Believe Bonus: The Pull Of The Japanese Toilet

The Strongest Force In Japan's Soft Power Arsenal

A toilet (made by Toto)

There might be no greater totem to the power of “cool, Japan!” than the Japanese toilet. Few would assume the bathroom staple would be at the forefront of the world’s fascination with the country. And yet! The Japanese toilet — in truth referring to the seat often placed on top of the toilet base, trademarked as a Washlet by Toto and best known for a variety of high-tech doo-dad-ery — is constantly being brought up as an example of not just Japan’s overall neatness, but general greatness.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel opened one of his recent shows praising the overall cleanliness of Japan, zeroing in…on the bathrooms, with a nod to those life-changing toilets. Do not dwell on the tourist-brained hyperbole dripping out of every sentence…Kimmel dodged the retro terrors of the squat toilet, and you can definitely find dirty parts of any metropolis, though I actually think he’s right about truck stops always having facilities batting way above what you would expect…becuase he’s simply engaging in a deacdes-long tradition at this point. People all over the world encounter a Japanese toilet, and instantly see it as extremely cool.

You would think a concept I remember first encountering when the Simpson family went to Tokyo would eventually fade a bit, like how people aren’t nearly as shocked about corn on pizza or how you have to take your shoes off inside a house. Yet if anything, we are experiencing like the 98th Japanese toilet boom. Kimmel giving ‘em the opening-monologue-seal-of-approval is just a small detail. Bigger still is that a whole movie predicated on a guy’s fascination with Japanese toilets and bathrooms was just nominated for an Academy Award.

I haven’t seen the film yet, so I’m certainly unable to comment on its actual contents. Yet I have read about the backstory, which involved The Tokyo Toilet — a Shibuya iniative with a variety of government and private backing — reaching out to German director Wim Wenders to come to Japan to see its top-class public restrooms. They hoped he would be impressed enough to create some documentary-style shorts, giving them a little extra international promotion. Wenders was moved enough to create a feature length film that isn’t just about toilets, of course. “But toilets are part of it, and toilets are part of a very specifically Japanese sense of welcoming ... and a sense of respect for this very human need that we all have."

A little over a year ago, I wrote about the phenomenon that is the Japanese toilet on the world stage for Newspicks, published in Japanese. Seeing as people continue to be charmed by the very same creations they relieve themselves into, I thought now would be a good time to share the article in English…from behind one paywall, to another.