In Japan, Expect Your Toilet to Make Some Noise

Japan’s high-tech toilets are getting an upgrade: sound-masking devices designed to hide the less pleasant noises of public restrooms. Known as Otohime, or “Sound Princess,” these gadgets play anything from rushing water to birdsong at the press of a button. The idea is to spare users embarrassment — and save water — by reducing how often people flush just to cover up sounds, according to The New York Times.

Originally introduced in women’s restrooms in Japan, Otohime units are now common in men’s rooms too. As Toto explains, younger men today are often more conscious about toilet noise. With public restrooms increasingly built without strictly gendered stalls, the devices have also become popular among transgender individuals — and Toto has consulted members of the community on how to make bathrooms more inclusive.

Remarkably, these sound-masking gadgets have even become a curiosity for hackers and hobbyists. One parody went viral — playing a dramatic samurai-TV-drama theme instead of water sounds. But the idea of masking restroom noise in Japan goes back centuries: ancient temples once relied on water splashing from urns to camouflage such sounds. The modern electronic version first appeared in 1979, during a drought, as a clever water-conservation measure.

Today, Toto’s technicians travel across Japan searching for just the right nature sounds to record. Competitors have added their own creative spins — including a roaring Formula One engine playing at a racetrack rest stop. Meanwhile, voice artist Donna Burke — who grew up double-flushing in Australia out of embarrassment — has launched her own product, “Royal Flushh.” It currently plays relaxing forest sounds, but Burke plans soon to offer everything from classical music to mock artillery fire. As she puts it: “People just don’t know they need it until someone shows them.”

One North Carolina transplant living in Japan notes that the sound-masking devices are just one of many surprising differences back home — along with heated toilet seats and public-restroom bidets. And according to her, sound-masking could be the first thing people think of when they imagine “Japanese toilet etiquette.”