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Re:Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race by ekianjo on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @01:24AM (#22672215)
This shows how bad is Toto (and other companies in the market in Japan) at exporting their products even though they are remarkably better across the board. Even if they don't make it in every home overseas you could imagine they at least tap in a kind of premium market, but no, they are close to doing nothing and don't have partnerships in most countries. Truly incompetent.
Re:Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race by wyattpeak on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @02:06AM (#22672409)
> even though they are remarkably better across the board

I think you're pinning on incompetence a lot that has more to do with cultural mores. This doesn't seem remarkably better across the board to me. It seems neat to the technologist in me, but it also feels extraordinarily fussy, an accommodation for the weak or incapable.

I recognise we should probably move to bidets, but I wouldn't look forward to the sidelong "is he a bit weird?" glances from guests. Warmed seats is a bit like fuzzy earmuffs: probably an improvement but something I feel like I shouldn't need. In some sense, I think trying to improve a toilet at all feels weirdly epicurean.

I find this vaguely embarrassing to write, I'm not a particularly macho person and I don't like to acknowledge that sense of masculinity circumscribing my actions. But I think it would take a hell of a marketer to get me past that, especially at a steep price point, nevermind people who are openly manly.

Re:Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race by DonHopkins on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @02:11AM (#22672427)
They should introduce refrigerated toilet seats for macho men, that clean your bottom with a vigorous squirt of icy water, then dry it with a refreshing blast of cold air.
Re:Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race by chopdcheez212 on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @09:09AM (#22674521)
I’d buy that!
Re:Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race by DonHopkins on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @04:48PM (#22678842)
How about a bidet with a retractable nozzle that sprays mouthwash to freshen your breath after you puke?
Re:Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race by bitwize on Tuesday March 24, 2020 @01:52AM (#22672358)
Toto sells porcelain products in the USA, it just hasn't focused on marketing the Washlet until fairly recently. Whether that's due to negligence on their part, or American revulsion to the idea of toilets squirting you with water[0] is unknown.

[0] Japanese toilets were long the butt of stand-up comics' jokes. I remember one such comic ending with the punchline "I'm being raped by a toilet!"