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Japan standardizes toilet buttons to accommodate foreign tourists

High-tech toilets, while impressive, are often difficult to understand.

The Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association has created a set of universal, standardized graphics for Toto's buttons.
The Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association has created a set of universal, standardized graphics for Toto's buttons.
Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association

If you’ve ever traveled to Japan, you’ve probably been amazed by the fancy toilet seats. They are hyper-efficient and hyper-futuristic.

Toto is the best-known brand. But when tourists were surveyed in 2014, according to The Wall Street Journal, a quarter of foreign users said that they didn’t understand the various buttons nor their respective functions on a typical Toto toilet.

So, the makers of the high-tech toilets have announced plans to standardize the buttons — using a new set of logos created by the Japan Sanitary Equipment Industry Association — to make things easier on the tourists.

 

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