a day ago
I tried the Japanese loo taking the world by storm
During the Nineties, bidets were seen as the ultimate bathroom status symbol for those with enough space and a desire for cleanliness. However, with the French plumbing fixture never quite taking off, it appears an increasing number of Britons wanting to take their bathroom hygiene to the next level are now looking to Japan.
Bathroom retailers are citing an increase in demand for Japanese lavatories, which has in part been put down to an heightened awareness for personal hygiene due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ilter Gokceoglu, director of Specifo, a bathroom shop in Mortlake, southwest London, said demand for toilets made by the Japanese manufacturer Toto had risen significantly since the pandemic as hygiene became 'more important to people'.
Gokceoglu said: 'In the past these toilets have simply been a luxury toy for rich people and every rich person has wanted to have them in their bathroom as a status symbol.'
But Gokceoglu claimed that had changed as people were drawn to the functionality of the toilets, which are increasingly seen as a status symbol among the middle classes, many of whom have travelled to Japan or stayed in plush Asian hotels.
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Toto's 'smart' lavatories come equipped with an auto-flush, a heated seat and a lid that opens and closes at the press of a button. The company's top-of-the-range models, such as their Neorest washlet, even include a lamp to assist those struggling to find the light switch during a late-night bathroom trip.
As I sat on a Toto toilet seat in a showroom in Battersea, I found the seat was more comfortable than most office chairs and could be heated to a temperature of your choice. Inside all of Toto's loos there is a piece of apparatus named a wand from which water is squirted at an intensity of your choosing. It also has a deodorant spray for those really wanting to freshen up at the click of a button.
Specifo, which entered the UK market in 2009 and supplies luxury hotels in London, has sold 50 per cent more smart lavatories in the past year than in the previous year, Gokceoglu said. He estimates that more than half of luxury hotels in London now have Toto washlets in their guest rooms.
Louise Ashdown, the in head of design at West One Bathrooms, which has ten showrooms across London and the southeast, said the more people travelled and went to luxury resorts, such as the ones depicted in the HBO series The White Lotus, the 'more people were inspired to get the toilets in their own bathrooms'.
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Ashdown said Toto's lavatories had become an 'aspirational product', as they could be purchased for as little as £2,000, with the more expensive models costing between £12,000 and £14,000. In the same way the vacuum cleaner became synonymous with Hoover and, later, Dyson, people have begun to use Toto as shorthand for referring to a washlet toilet, Ashdown said.
'People want to have a spa feeling at home and even just a heated seat to sit on when they get up for the toilet in the middle of the night,' Ashdown said.
However, there are also far cheaper options for people who want some of the functionality without the premium price tag. Generic seats with built in washlets that fit to a conventional lavatory and are easily attached to the existing plumbing are available from online retailers for about £100.
