为什么美国在厕所技术上落后了

为什么美国在厕所技术上落后了

I just got back from my first trip to Japan, and I'm now in love with the country. The ramen, yakitori and sushi. The gorgeous volcanoes. The fascinating people and culture. But of all the things I fell in love with, there's one that I can't stop thinking about: the toilets.

我刚从日本旅行回来，我现在爱上了这个国家。拉面、烤鸡肉串和寿司。华丽的火山。迷人的人和文化。但在我爱上的所有东西中，有一样是我无法停止思考的:厕所。

Japanese toilets are marvels of technological innovation. They have integrated bidets, which squirt water to clean your private parts. They have dryers and heated seats. They use water efficiently, clean themselves and deodorize the air, so bathrooms actually smell good. They have white noise machines, so you can fill your stall with the sound of rain for relaxation and privacy. Some even have built-in night lights and music players. It's all customizable and controlled by electronic buttons on a panel next to your seat.

日本厕所是技术创新的奇迹。他们有集成的坐浴盆，可以喷水来清洁你的私处。他们有烘干机和加热座椅。他们高效用水，自我清洁，并去除空气中的气味，所以卫生间的气味真的很好闻。他们有白噪音机器，所以你可以为了放松或隐私性用雨声填充你的小隔间，放松和隐私。有些甚至有内置的夜灯和音乐播放器。这一切都是可定制的，由座位旁边面板上的电子按钮控制。

In Japan, these high-tech toilets are everywhere: hotels, restaurants, bus stations, rest stops and around 80% of homes. It's glorious. Then, I come back to the United States, our toilets basically have one feature: flush. No heated seats. No nice smells and sounds. No sanitizing blasts of liquid. It's like cleaning your dishes without water. It's gross. And it got me thinking: Why can't we have high-tech toilets too?

在日本，这些高科技厕所无处不在：酒店、餐馆、汽车站、休息站和大约80%的家庭。棒极了。之后，我回到美国，我们的厕基本上只有一个功能：冲洗。没有加热座位。没有美妙的气味和声音。不需要对液体进行消毒。这就像在没有水的情况下洗碗一样。太恶心了。这让我思考：为什么我们不能也有高科技厕所呢?

Most of the toilets in Japan are made by a company called Toto, which started the high-tech toilet revolution in 1980 when it unveiled the Washlet, a first-of-its-kind electric toilet seat with an integrated bidet.

日本的大多数马桶都是由一家名为Toto的公司制造的，该公司在1980年推出了第一款带有集成坐浴盆的电动马桶座圈，开启了高科技马桶革命的序幕。

Toto has been innovating on the design ever since. So I reached out to the company. It put me in touch with Bill Strang, the president of corporate strategy and e-commerce at Toto USA. "U.S. toilets are effectively bedpans with a drain," says Strang.

从那以后，Toto在设计上不断创新。所以我联系了公司。这让我取得了与比尔·斯特朗的联系，他是Toto美国公司战略和电子商务总统。斯特朗说:“美国的厕所实际上是带排水管的便盆。”

Strang is originally from the Midwest, and he joined Toto 17 years ago. That's when he had his first experience with the Washlet bidet, and it was much like mine. It began with "apprehension, a little bit of angst," he says. But then he pushed the spray button and had a joyous sensation. The bathroom would never be the same.

斯特朗来自中西部，17年前加入Toto公司。那就是他第一次体验浴盆，和我的很像。开始时“恐惧，一点点焦虑，”他说。但随后他按下了喷雾按钮，产生了一种愉悦的感觉。浴室就完全变了。。

The Washlet has been for sale in the U.S. since 1990. but it never took off. While Toto has found success with its traditional porcelain products (and manufactures them in the U.S. and Mexico), the Washlet remains a novelty, found mostly at some high-end hotels, showrooms and Japanese restaurants.

自1990年以来浴盆一直在美国销售，但一直没有成功。虽然Toto的传统瓷器产品取得了成功(并在美国和墨西哥生产)，但浴盆仍然是一种新鲜事物，主要出现在一些高端酒店、展厅和日本餐厅。

Economists spend a lot of time analyzing how and why technology spreads from one place to another. They call it "technology diffusion." One study looked at the spread of 20 technologies across 161 countries over the last 140 years, and it found evidence that geographic distance significantly slows the spread of new gadgets.

经济学家花了很多时间分析技术如何以及为什么从一个地方传播到另一个地方。他们称之为“技术扩散”。一项研究考察了过去140年里161个国家20项技术的传播情况，发现有证据表明，地理距离大大减缓了新科技产品的传播。

It fits with the pattern we see with high-tech toilets. Strang says that after Japan, high-tech toilets have mostly spread to nations along the Pacific Rim.

它符合我们看到的高科技厕所的模式。斯特朗说，继日本之后，高科技厕所大多已蔓延到太平洋沿岸国家。

But the speed of technology dispersion has sped up significantly in the modern era. Another study found that the spread of technologies developed after 1925 has been three times faster than the spread of those developed before 1925. That makes sense, with modern transportation and communication and all.

但在现代，技术扩散的速度明显加快。另一项研究发现，1925年后发展起来的技术传播速度比1925年前发展起来的技术传播速度快三倍。这是有道理的，因为有了现代交通和通讯等等。