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A comment on Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bidet controls. Parent comment

Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by laurieg on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:45AM (#13435015)
It's very common in Japan to pander to foreigners (read: "non-Asians") when they never asked to be pandered to in the first place.

It's unlikely anyone ever complained about the symbol but someone probably brought it up a meeting and the slightest chance that a foreigner would be offended was enough to push it through.

Special treatment for foreigners is not new. [1] Recently they rent-a-car agencies have started putting a "foreigner driving" sticker on cars rented by non-Japanese people. Interestingly the sticker says "Foreigner driving" in Japanese but "I love driving in Japan" or "Friendly driving" in English, with no mention of the 'foreigner' part.

[1] http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160416/p2a/00m/0na/005...

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Re:Japanese toilet industry agrees to standardize complex bi... by kalleboo on Thursday January 19, 2017 @06:54AM (#13435061)
> It's unlikely anyone ever complained about the symbol but someone probably brought it up a meeting and the slightest chance that a foreigner would be offended was enough to push it through.

The changes were based on surveys that showed that many tourists had no idea what the symbol represented.

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