I was reading about American Standard and how its stock took a beating over at msnbc when I came across this paragraph:

Furthermore — and I realize this is a strange thing to say — the toilets in most American homes are downright inferior to what you’ll find in the average Japanese home. We’re an advanced society, concerned about cleanliness, but Americans haven’t embraced toilet advances common in Japan, like heated toilet seats, a built-in bidet, or automated toilet seat covers. There’s an outside chance that Americans could seek to catch up with our Japanese friends in the bathroom. That sort of upgrade market would spell good news for American Standard going forward.

It’s absolutely true. Toilets in Japan are technological wonders, and so advanced that it’s sometimes difficult to know how to use them. By far and above the best feature is the heated toilet seat. Wake up in the morning with frost on the ground in the US and it’s wait until the central heating kicks in for 30 minutes before attempting to go to the bathroom. Not so in Japan, where that seat is toasty warm 24/7.

Which all together reminded me of a commercial I saw the other day. It seems that keeping the toilet seat warm constantly is a waste of energy so the Japanese have come out with an instant warm toilet seat. I don’t know exactly how it works – I’ll have to pay more attention the next time it comes on, but there you have it. An energy efficient toilet seat warmer. Now you know why “the toilets in most American homes are downright inferior to what you’ll find in the average Japanese home.”