By Yasuhiro Kobayashi and Naoki Kawaguchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Major Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto Ltd. has announced that it will increase its production capacity of toilets in the United States by 50% after expanding a plant in the southern state of Georgia.

It will mark the first time in 28 years Toto expands or builds a plant in the United States.

The move reflects Toto's aim to shift the pillar of its overseas business from China to the United States, as the company is enjoying booming sales of bidet-style toilets in America.

The toilet manufacturer entered the U.S. market in 1989 and currently operates two plants in Georgia. Its No. 1 plant mainly produces toilet tanks, while the No. 2 plant manufactures built-in tank toilets and other products.

Toto will expand the No. 2 plant this autumn to increase its production capacity of toilets from 200,000 units per year to 300,000 units. With the expansion, the company will start mass production of the latest model of built-in tank toilets, which is popular in the United States. The expansion involves introducing 34 robots to automate tasks such as integrating toilets and tanks.

Currently, many of the toilets Toto sells in the United States are imported from Vietnam and other countries. With the expansion of the No. 2 factory, the company will be able to produce over 50% of its toilets sold in the United States in the American continent. The expansion of the plant is also expected to help mitigate the impact of the U.S. government's tariff policies.

Toto have had a low profile in the United States, resulting in poor performance for a long time. However, the company's sales have rapidly increased in recent years. Toto President Shinya Tamura attributes the success to the company's perseverance, saying, "We have patiently continued operations (in the United States)."

Toto reported its sales value of toilets and other household equipment in the United States as 70.5 billion yen in fiscal 2024, which ended March 2025, including the sales of some items in Canada in the figure. The figure has increased more than 100% in five years. The main reason behind the rapid growth is the heightening of hygiene awareness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the growing popularity of bidet-style toilets. The sales volume of bidet-style toilets has surged more than 20-fold in 20 years.

China has long been Toto's driving force in overseas operations, hitting a record high in fiscal 2021 at 92.4 billion yen and accounting for about half of its overseas sales.

However, the company's performance in China is rapidly deteriorating with the sharp slowdown in the housing market triggered by the financial crisis of major real estate developer China Evergrande Group. In fiscal 2024, Toto's sales value decreased to 66.9 billion yen, down 20% from the previous year. Toto expects that the figure will further drop in fiscal 2025 to 50.5 billion yen. In April this year, the company announced a restructuring plan to reduce its production capacity in China by 40% after closing two plants in the country.

On the other hand, Toto sees huge potential in the U.S. market compared to Japan, as the adoption rate of bidet-style toilets in the former is only around 3%, much lower than over 80% in Japan. The company aims to offset the decline of China sales by further enhancing operations in the United States with the latest plant expansion.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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August 26, 2025 06:04 ET (10:04 GMT)

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