NEARLY all Japanese have converted to using seated toilets since 1977, when these first overtook the squatting versions. For future growth, Japan’s largest toilet maker Toto Ltd. is looking toward neighboring China.

    “Just like Japan when I was growing up, not many people owned houses and apartments were small,” said Toto’s president Madoka Kitamura, 58. “I believe China will follow the footsteps of developed countries as expansion in the housing market should follow as it exits from an exports-driven economy.”

    Toto, which has been making ceramic sitting-style toilets in Japan since 1917, is looking to China as sales in Japan stagnate amid a shrinking population. The Kitakyushu, Japan-based company introduced its first “washlet” in 1980 — a toilet which combines a heated seat with an electronically controlled bidet.

    Toto currently derives three-quarters of its sales domestically, where about 70 percent of households already have washlets installed, according to Kitamura.

    There aren’t clear statistics about the prevalence of seated toilets in China, according to Kitamura, who joined Toto in 1981 and rose through the ranks before becoming president in 2014.

    There’s also the question of habit. Most people in China “are accustomed to squatting” in toilets and for seated versions to become more widespread requires the country’s bathroom culture to improve, such as by breaking the habit of squatting on toilet seats, said an unsigned column posted on Xinhua’s website last year.

    While seated toilets are a common sight in modern apartment buildings, many malls and public toilets throughout China still use the squatting versions. Homes and restaurants in the countryside often rely on a simple open-air pit toilet.

    According to China’s national standards for latrines catering to tourists issued in 2003, those with equal number of sitting and squatting loos can qualify as five-star “tourism toilets,” among other requirements, while those with sit-squat ratios of four-to-six can have four stars. One-starred facilities should have at least one toilet bowl in both male and female bathrooms.

    Still, Kitamura expects unit sales of Toto-brand washlets in China to rise 50 percent this fiscal year ending March 2016 as they gain greater awareness among Chinese travelling to Japan. A record 5 million Chinese tourists visited Japan last year, with heated toilet seats among the most popular duty-free products they take home. (SD-Agencies)