The History of TOTO

1917 1903 – 1917 · Origins

How did TOTO begin?

TOTO began with Kazuchika Okura’s belief that Japan would need clean, Western-style sanitary ware long before it had the sewers to use it. He funded a ceramics laboratory in 1912, produced Japan’s first home-made ceramic sit-down flush toilet in 1914 and founded Toyo Toki Company, Limited in Kokura in May 1917.

Okura worked for the Morimura trading house, and with his father he had helped found its porcelain company, Nippon Toki, known today as Noritake. In 1903 he travelled through Europe with his father, Magobei, to study hard white porcelain, and the spotless white bathroom fixtures he saw there stayed with him. At home, squat toilets were the norm and modern sewers barely existed.

In 1912 father and son paid out of their own pockets for a sanitary-ware laboratory inside the Nippon Toki works in Nagoya. Success did not come quickly: TOTO records roughly 17,280 clay mixes and test firings before the team produced a seated flush toilet in 1914 and began selling it on a trial basis.

Toyo Toki was set up in 1917 with Okura as its first president. Kokura, at the northern tip of Kyushu, was chosen partly for the nearby port of Moji, a natural gateway to the rest of Asia. The name pointed the same way: tōyō means “the Orient” and tōki means “ceramics”. Japan was not yet ready for flush toilets on a large scale, so for roughly its first fifty years the company relied heavily on tableware.

• 1903 A trip through Europe convinces Okura that Japan will need ceramic sanitary ware.
• 1912 The Okura family funds a sanitary-ware laboratory in Nagoya.
• 1914 The first ceramic sit-down flush toilet made in Japan goes on trial sale.
• 1917 Toyo Toki Company, Limited is founded in Kokura.

1980 1964 – 1983 · The WASHLET

When was the WASHLET invented?

TOTO launched the WASHLET in June 1980. It did not invent the washing toilet seat; it started by selling an American hospital model in 1964. By re-engineering that idea around employee research and microcomputer temperature control, TOTO turned it into a comfortable, reliable product for ordinary homes.

The first seat TOTO sold was the Wash Air Seat, made by the American Bidet Company for hospital patients who found toilet paper difficult to use. From 1969 TOTO built its own version in Japan with a heated seat, still aimed mainly at hospitals, care homes and wealthy households. It was not alone: its rival Ina Seito, now part of LIXIL, had released Japan’s first home-grown washing toilet in 1967.

Customers liked the idea but not the experience. The water temperature drifted and the spray did not always land where it should. With no body-measurement data to go on, TOTO’s engineers asked around 300 employees to help find the right settings, then used microcomputer controls to hold the temperatures steady.

The result was the WASHLET G, launched in June 1980 and named after the phrase “let’s wash”. Its core functions are still the heart of every WASHLET today:

• Warm-water rear wash
• Warm-air drying
• Heated seat
• Electronic temperature control

Take-up was gradual at first. That changed in 1982 with a television advert in which the pop singer Jun Togawa made a simple point: if you wash your hands when they are dirty, why not your bottom? Screened at dinnertime, it drew complaints, but it also made WASHLET a household name in Japan. A year later TOTO added a self-cleaning wand that rinses itself with fresh water. In 2012 the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers listed the WASHLET G as Mechanical Engineering Heritage No. 55.

• 1964 TOTO begins selling the American-made Wash Air Seat, mainly to hospitals.
• 1969 TOTO makes its own washing seat in Japan and adds a heated seat.
• 1980 The WASHLET G goes on sale in June.
• 1982 TOTO’s famous WASHLET television advert airs in Japan.
• 1983 The self-cleaning wand is introduced.

2010 2008 – 2026 · Europe and the UK

When did TOTO come to Europe and the UK?

TOTO set up its European headquarters in Düsseldorf in 2008 and launched in Europe at the ISH trade fair in Frankfurt in March 2009. It opened its London showroom in Clerkenwell in 2010. That showroom was rebuilt from the ground up and reopened on 20 May 2026, during Clerkenwell Design Week.

European bathrooms differ from Japanese ones, so TOTO configured its European ranges for local tastes and installation standards. At ISH 2013 it brought EWATER+, which uses electrolysed tap water to keep the wand and bowl clean, to Europe together with its ACTILIGHT technology and its first self-cleaning WASHLET for the European market.

Since 2010 TOTO’s UK base has been in Clerkenwell, London’s architecture and design quarter. The 2026 rebuild on St John Street, designed by MACH Architects, adds a global specification area alongside the UK range, a technology zone that shows how the toilets and WASHLETs work, and a concept accessible bathroom. Materials from the old showroom, including terrazzo made from recycled ceramics, were reused. Read our report on the new TOTO London showroom.

Tooaleta has specialised in shower toilets for UK homes since 2011 and supplies TOTO WASHLET seats, complete WASHLET toilet sets and NEOREST models with UK delivery.

• 2008 TOTO’s European headquarters is set up in Düsseldorf.
• 2009 European launch at ISH, Frankfurt.
• 2010 TOTO opens its London showroom in Clerkenwell.
• 2013 EWATER+ and ACTILIGHT are shown in Europe at ISH.
• 2026 The rebuilt London showroom reopens on 20 May.