TOKYO -- When it comes to saving energy, the Japanese have much to teach the United States and other rich countries, whose leaders descend on Japan next month for a Group of Eight summit.

Energy consumption per person here is about half that in the United States, and the growth of greenhouse gas emissions is slower than anywhere in the industrialized world.

There is a hiccup, though, in this world-beating record. It happens inside the Japanese home, where energy use is surging. And nothing embodies the surge quite like the toilet -- a plumbing fixture that has been reengineered here as an ultracomfy energy hog.

Japanese toilets can warm and wash one's bottom, whisk away odors with built-in fans and play water noises that drown out potty sounds. They play relaxation music, too. "Ave Maria" is a favorite.

High-end toilets can also sense when someone enters or leaves the bathroom, raising or lowering their lids accordingly. Many models have a "learning mode," which allows them to memorize the lavatory schedules of household members.

These always-on electricity-guzzlers (keeping water warm for bottom-washing devours power) barely existed in Japan before 1980. Now, they are in 68 percent of homes, accounting for about 4 percent of household energy consumption. They use more power than dishwashers or clothes dryers.

"For hygiene-conscious Japanese, the romance with these toilets is equivalent to the American romance with the Hummer," said Philip Clapp, deputy managing director of the environmental group at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington.

Toilets with built-in warmers for bottom-washing first arrived in Japan in the 1970s. They were U.S.-made medical devices for hemorrhoid sufferers. But they took off, becoming the most profitable innovation in the modern history of Japanese bathrooms, according to toilet makers.

The Japanese are serious about cleanliness. The word for clean -- kirei -- is also a word for beautiful. People often sweep the street in front of their house. They remove their shoes upon entering a house. They shower before bathing. They are sensitive to odors. For all these needs, aversions and desires, super toilets fit the bill, as well as catering to the Japanese love of gadgets.

In addition, Japanese houses are often small and, in the winter, chilly. A warm, comfortable, musical and hygienic seat in the bathroom expands living space.

But as with a Hummer, romance with a high-end toilet is not cheap. Luxury models cost up to $4,000 -- plus at least $2.50 a month per toilet in higher electricity bills.

But unlike the Hummer, which few Americans are now buying and which General Motors may soon stop making, romance with toilets continues to bloom in Japan, albeit with the intensive mediation of government energy watchdogs, who have begun to monitor the behavior of the toilet-smitten masses.

The final report of the Electric Toilet Seats Evaluation Standard Subcommittee noted last year that 23 to 30 percent of Japanese men now sit while urinating. They do so, the report said, for comfort and for "prevention of urine splash."

The report also included findings from the Warm-Water-Shower Toilet Seat Council (an industry group) that women urinate eight times a day, with an average on-seat time of 96 seconds.

The government started gathering these details around 2000, when nationwide surveys of electricity use began to show that toilets had become a significant factor in the country's appliance-driven failure to contain energy use in the home.

The Japanese government is struggling to meet obligations under the Kyoto global warming treaty to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

At the G-8 meeting next month, Japan will be pushing the United States and other member countries to accept mandatory limits on emissions of the gases, which cause global warming.

Since the oil shock of 1973, no industrialized country has been more effective in squeezing more affluence out of less imported energy than Japan, experts say. Relative to its economy, Japan consumes only a third as much oil as it did 35 years ago.

Industry has led the charge, more than doubling output while using less energy than it did in 1973. To make a ton of steel, Japanese manufacturers use 20 percent less fuel than their counterparts in the United States and 50 percent less than those in China.

The primary reason for efficiency gains was lack of choice. Japan is an export-dependent manufacturing economy with virtually no domestic sources of fossil fuel. In industry, fierce global competition helped compel the profit motive to marry energy efficiency.

No such shotgun marriage, however, has taken place in the Japanese home, where energy consumption has jumped by 213 percent since the 1973 oil shock. Government figures have shown that household power use has risen at almost exactly the same rate as personal spending. (Despite the rise, per capita residential emissions of greenhouse gases in Japan are only 41 percent of those in the United States.)

"Consumers won't sacrifice comfort for the sake of energy conservation," said Yasuhiro Tanaka, chief of the energy efficiency division at the agency for natural resources and energy. "Consumers won't follow that path because we are richer."

Since the government cannot stop affluent consumers from buying flat-screen televisions and super toilets, it has chosen to squeeze manufacturers, requiring them to meet increasingly strict energy targets.

In the toilet industry, progress has been impressive, with nearly every manufacturer meeting its 2006 energy-efficiency target, according to government surveys.

Toto, Japan's largest toilet maker, says that in the past decade, it has cut the monthly cost of electricity for its multi-featured toilets from $4.69 to $2.59. Almost all of this reduction has come without the involvement of toilet users, according to Kazumi Kasahara, a Toto manager.

"We have not heard about customers who turn their toilets off because they want to be green," he said. "What we do hear about are customers who get addicted to these toilets and cannot stop using them."

For the addicted, Toto and other manufacturers -- with government encouragement -- have invented the intelligent toilet.

After a few days on the job in a household, it memorizes when and how family members do their business. Then, with history as its guide, the toilet intermittently heats up its seat and warms its water.

When no one is likely to be in need, the toilet is cool.

原文參見：http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401285.html

免治馬桶花樣炫 日節能破功

日本節能觀念及效率領先美國和其他富國，人均耗能約僅美國一半，溫室效應氣體排放增長速率也低於各工業國，唯獨居家能源消耗量不斷增加，禍首之一竟是風行日本的「免治馬桶」。

華盛頓郵報25日報導，日本的高檔「免治馬桶」不只是噴出溫水清潔臀部，還能加熱保溫讓人坐上去備感溫暖，以內建風扇去除異味，甚至播放水聲掩蓋噗通噗通不雅的聲音，或播放讓人全身放鬆的柔和音樂，膾炙人口的「聖母頌」最普遍。

頂級馬桶還可在有人進入或離開時感應，自動掀蓋或闔蓋，這類馬桶當然要價不菲，頂級的要賣4,000美元（約台幣12萬元）。而且這一切功能，都要付出耗費更多電能的代價。

1980年之前，這種耗電的馬桶在日本相當罕見，但目前的普及率已達到68%，統計顯示馬桶耗電量約占居家全部耗電的4%，比洗碗機或乾衣機還高。

1970年代，可噴出溫水清潔臀部的免治馬桶首次引進日本，最初是僅供痔瘡病人使用的醫療器材。但日本人愛乾淨，經常主動清掃住家門前的街道，進入屋子前一定脫鞋，泡澡前先淋浴，而且對各種異味很敏感，免治馬桶因此大行其道，更何況還可以滿足日本人喜愛各種高科技新發明的心理。

此外，日本人的住家通常面積小，冬天寒冷。浴室配置一個溫暖、舒適、旋律飄飄而又衛生的馬桶，等於起居空間擴大。

日本對高科技馬桶之瘋狂，讓外國人無法想像，日本政府甚至成立了一個「電子馬桶座標準評估委員會」，定期對國民如廁狀況和馬桶生產標準提出報告。去年的報告顯示，免治馬桶某種程度改變了日本男人的如廁方式，如今日本男性高達三成是坐著小便，以免尿液噴髒了馬桶座，而且坐在溫暖的馬桶上非常舒服。

日本政府當然注意到馬桶耗電問題，也知道無法讓民眾為了節能而犧牲舒適和衛生，因此轉而要求製造廠商設計節能馬桶，而且訂定的節能標準愈來愈嚴格。業界最新的發明是讓馬桶配備「學習程式」，能夠記住居家成員的如廁時間，時間快到了才加熱馬桶座和水，平常就待機省電。日本最大的馬桶製造商東陶（Toto）表示，他們的智慧馬桶，可將每月耗用的電費從過去的4.69美元（約台幣140元）降為2.5美元（台幣75元）。

2008/06/26 聯合報 國際 編譯陳世欽