TOKYO: It is not often that Goldman Sachs refers to the capricious, cleanliness-obsessed Japanese kawayakami toilet gods in its equity research. It is rarer still that it cites the propitiation of these deities while making the investment case for a Chinese bathroom fittings company.
While smart-toilet adoption in China has, for the past decade, been led by middle-aged, middle-class women, the next phase is expected to draw in younger buyers. In Japan, it adds, smart toilets enjoy an 80 per cent adoption rate, while in the US, which Goldman declares an “unfriendly toilet culture”, the rate is below 1 per cent.
But the product, in all its intimate cultural and technological complexity, stands as a proxy for a type of middle-class, property-linked consumer spending whose relevance to the wider questions around the Chinese economy has never felt stronger.