From Japan with ‘lav’ at toilet museum

The utilitarian toilet takes the throne this week as Japan opens a museum dedicated to a century of all things lavatory. Manufacturer Toto is creating the free gallery at its base in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu. It will include a replica of its first water-flushing toilet, released in 1914, as well as the most modern bidet-equipped toilets featuring odour neutralizers and variable water jets. Hightech toilets are a common sight in Japan, praised as the epitome of that country’s scientific knowhow — “a contraption that offers both comforting warmth and a frighteningly accurate bidet jet,” as the South China Morning Post put it.