世論 What Japan Thinks

This is a matter that I have pondered about, so it’s interesting to see BlogCh addressing the issue of hot water bum-washing toilet seat usage.

Demographics

Between the 29th and 31st of July 2008 658 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed an internet-based private questionnaire. 51.2% of the sample were male, 13.2% in their twenties, 47.0% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 11.2% in their teens or fifty or older.

I’ve used the hot water spray twice; once on a toilet with a built-in drier, and once without. Both were rather unpleasant experiences, and the lingering feeling of dampness downstairs was quite disconcerting.

Research results

Q1: Do you use a hot water washing toilet seat? (Sample size=658)

	All	Male N=337	Female N=321
Every time (to SQ1)	49.2%	57.9%	40.2%
Sometimes (to SQ1)	25.2%	16.3%	34.6%
Don’t use (to SQ2)	17.3%	16.6%	18.1%
Never used (to SQ2)	8.2%	9.2%	7.2%

Q1SQ1: What do you call a hot water washing toilet seat? (Sample size=490)

Washlet	95.1%
Shower toilet	3.7%
Beauty toilet (in a French accent)	0.6%
Clean wash	0.0%
Other	0.6%

Washlet is actually a trademark of TOTO, the first company to develop a home-use seat for Japan. Although the French for toilet seems to be toilette, the “toilet” in “Beauty toilet” is rendered in Japanese as トワレ, which is toware, roughly how “toilet” might be badly pronounced in French.

Q1SQ2: Why don’t you use a hot water washing toilet seat? (Sample size=168)

	All	Male N=87	Female N=81
Don’t need it	39.3%	54.0%	23.5%
Worry about hygiene of it	28.6%	16.1%	42.0%
Don’t like the feel of it	10.7%	8.0%	13.6%
Never used a toilet with one	10.1%	12.6%	7.4%
Scary	4.2%	2.3%	6.2%
Other	7.1%	6.9%	7.4%

Q2: Do you know the maker of your home toilet? (Sample size=658)

Yes	61.1%
No	38.9%