The Japanese have smart toilets that can host apps and play music. And soon, Americans will too. Smart Toilets with integrated bidets and a host of electronic features are now on sale under the brand name American Standard. Just stop and let this sink in for a moment. America, the land of prude people and equally harsh, dry toilet paper will soon embrace toilets capable of spraying water and playing bird songs to mask the otherwise zestier sounds of bathroom use. It’s about time.
Features
Smart toilets are a staple of modern Japanese living, included in as many as 70% of homes. But in America, they are practically non-existent. Even bidets are a rare sight outside of the occasional Korean friend’s home. American Standard’s latest line of AT100 and AT200 toilets features such a broad array of electronics that the act of going “number two” can finally be transformed into an exciting ritual to look forward to. Allow me to elaborate: other than a built-in bidet for easy-access hygiene, the toilets feature a heated seat, a gesture-controlled lid-lifting mechanism, an air dryer, a night light, a glute massager, speakers, and a Bluetooth connection for smartphone syncing.
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The majority of Japanese smart toilets are produced by Lixil Corp., which now owns the American Standards brand, and Toto, Japan’s largest maker of sanitary ware. Lixil Corp.’s CEO, Mr. Yoshiaki Fujimori, believes the U.S. is an untapped market for Smart Toilets and entering that market using a familiar brand (American Standards) is key.
The Steve Jobs of toilets
Fujimori likens smart toilets to Apple’s iPhone, stating that few people realized they needed a smartphone until the iPhone was released. “Industry presents iPhone — industry presents shower toilet,” stated Mr. Fujimori in an interview with the Wall Street Journal at Lixil's headquarters in Tokyo. “We can create the same type of pattern.”
America and its fear of bidets
Skeptics fear Americans will hesitate to upgrade to a smart toilet considering how the introduction of the bidet in 1980s largely fell flat on its face. The next so-called “toilet innovation” came in the form of toilets with built-in bidgets, which Toto and Kohler has been selling for years in the U.S., but the invention never took off outside of the occasional celebrity or luxury aficionado. Partially responsible for this failure to launch was the $5,000 asking fee. If Lixil Corp.’s Amercan Standard brand seeks to proliferate, product cost must be far more consumer-friendly.
The research firm Freedonia Group predicts that U.S. sales of toilets and plumbing fixtures will rise 6% to an annual rate of $12 billion.
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