Coming Soon: Japanese Bidet-Toilets at 30,000 Feet

Travel Blog • Terry Ward • 07.13.07 | 11:23 AM ET

My sister, Janet, visited Japan last year and returned with a breathless account of her experience with Japanese toilets, particularly the “washlets”—high-tech bidet models with myriad features such as adjustable hot and cold water sprayers, heated seats, blow dryers and, in some cases, massage settings. “It’s not for someone who just wants to go in, do their business and get out the door,” she concluded. Japan-bound visitors have traditionally had to wait until they arrive to make use of what are perhaps the world’s most luxurious loos. But according to a recent Reuters story, soon passengers on some All Nippon Airways (ANA) flights won’t even have to wait that long. (Yes, the airline that brought the world the Pokemon jet is again breaking new ground.)

In an attempt to attract more home country business (according to an expert cited in the story, 60 percent of Japanese homes have bidet-toilets), the company is making washlets standard on the fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets it will begin flying next year.

Officials are hopeful the plane will be ready to fly from Japan to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, with routes to North America and Europe also on the radar.

As one airline executive put it recently, the toilets, made by a Japanese firm, will “refresh the parts other airlines cannot reach.”

Photo by Haseo, via Flickr (Creative Commons).