
It’s long been a conundrum for visitors to Japan: how do you actually use the toilet? For more than 35 years, the “washlet”—also known in some parts as the “super toilet”—has baffled the unwary traveller with its incredibly confusing array of additional functions.
Each of these space-age super toilets comes with a panel of buttons festooned with inscrutable icons. Press the wrong one and you can easily end up with a sharp jet of cold water at an uncomfortable angle, or even an unexpected blow-dry for your junk. What makes the whole affair exponentially more confusing is the fact that, until now, the makers of these Swiss army-knife commodes couldn’t agree on a way to standardise the images they put on the buttons.
Ahead of the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020, however, with a massive influx of tourists and their bowel movements expected in the country, the manufacturers have reached a consensus. At a press conference on Tuesday, representatives from the nine companies that make up Japan’s Sanitary Equipment Industry Association unveiled eight new symbols to accompany the various key functions for each new loo. Models released from April this year will all be standardised, and the manufacturers hope it might even become an international standard.
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Source: Ars Technica – High-tech toilets in Japan getting standardized icons