Smart toilet seats are central to Chinese government’s plans, apparently

It’s no secret that China’s government wants to push forward development in the tech industry and increase global respect for the “Made in China” brand. But China’s State Council apparently puts a surprising amount of emphasis on the importance of China’s bathroom technology.

In a recently released set of guidelines for made in China, the State Council lists a number of products that Chinese firms should focus on improving. The top three – at least in the order the State Council listed them – are air purifiers, rice cookers, and smart toilet seats.

There are other items on the list too, but they’re mostly the kind of things you’d expect – smartphones, toys, etc. The smart toilet as an important focus for development jumps out as somewhat out of place, and the State Council document offers no further explanation. Why smart toilet seat development is a national priority is a mystery.

Does this mean we’ll see a Xiaomi toilet seat anytime soon?

I do have a theory, though: Japan. You may remember that earlier this year during China’s yearly legislative session, rice cookers rather unexpectedly became a point of discussion and a black mark on China’s tech industry: why were Japanese firms still producing better rice cookers than Chinese firms? Several high-profile tech CEOs got in on the action, and Xiaomi released its own rice cooker a month or so later.

Apparently, Japan dominates the smart toilet seat market in a similar way. On Taobao, for example, the top-selling smart toilet seats are mostly Japanese, and many are marketed with an emphasis on their Japanese or otherwise foreign origin. I can’t say whether it’s true as I’ve never personally tried any brand of smart toilet seat – I like my toilets dumb, thank you very much – but Chinese consumers apparently believe that Japan simply makes a better toilet seat than China. This has been an issue of contention for nationalists for over a year already, and it seems the State Council may be firing it up again.

Does this mean we’ll see a Xiaomi toilet seat anytime soon? It’s hard to say. But with the product mentioned so prominently in a State Council planning document, creating the best Chinese-made smart toilet seat may be the kind of prestige project that attracts a number of China’s smart hardware firms and startups.