A Toilet Museum is Opening in Japan

It’s a love story to the lavatory

Japanese Toilet
This Japanese toilet takes flushing to another level. Maya-Anaïs Yataghène [Creative Commons - Flickr]

A testament to the throne. A love story to the lavatory. Whatever you want to call it, Japan’s newest museum lends itself to plenty of potty jokes — the AFP reports that Japan’s leading toilet appliance manufacturer is opening a museum dedicated to a century of high-tech heads.

The toilet museum, which opens Friday in Kitakyushu, will be operated by TOTO, a company that credits itself with “revolutionizing bathrooms.” As Japan’s leading toilet manufacturer, TOTO has been called “the Apple of toilet tech.” It’s perhaps a natural fit for Japan, which is known worldwide for tech-savvy toilet seats that offer water jets, automatic lids, deodorizers, temperature controls, and other amenities. Nippon.com notes that a whopping 76 percent of Japanese households have one or more electronic toilet seats.

Visitors to the museum will be able to take a trip back in toilet time with recreated bathrooms from different eras, a replica of the company’s first bidet-equipped toilet seat, and other highlights, the AFP reports. The museum may just displace TOTO’s Tokyo Center showroom as Japan’s premier “Wait, toilets can DO that?” destination.

So how much dough does a plumbing fan need for a trip to the TOTO museum’s bathrooms? None — as the AFP reports, admission to the museum will be free.

Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.