Derrière Diplomacy: Chinese Consumers Swamp Japanese Toilet Stores. China Real Time, Feb 11, 2015 (blog).
blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/02/10/derriere-diplomacy-chinese-consumers-swamp-japanese-toilet-stores/
Note:
(a)
(i) bidet (noun; French [noun masculine bidet pony], small horse, from Middle French, from bider to trot; First Known Use 1766): www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bidet
(ii) English dictionary (from "Online Etymology Dictionary"):
bidet (n): "Originally in French 'a small horse, a pony,' thus 'a vessel on a low narrow stand, which can be bestridden for bathing purposes,' a sense attested in English from 1766.
(b) "These bidet toilet seats are masterpieces of Japanese creativity and consideration * * * News segments on the shopping frenzy shown on Chinese state television showed a Japanese store manager bemused by herds of Chinese tour groups who take just one afternoon to clean out, so to speak, his entire store. Price per bidet? Just 2,000 yuan ($320) a pop."
clean out (v) www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clean%20out
(i) Definition 1 is "to strip or exhaust of all contents, supplies, or resources <the redecorating job cleaned out the club treasury>." The example means that the cost of redecoration emptied the treasury.
(ii) The term is not usually used in the bowel movement.
(c) "An opinion piece in the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily questioned: 'Do Japanese toilet lids smell better?'”
刘颂寒：日本的马桶盖会比较香吗 ? 荆楚网, Feb 9, 2015.
focus.cnhubei.com/original/201502/t3179167.shtml
, which was republished on People's Daily on the same day.
(d)
(i) The photo illustration displays the control panel of a bidet. The middle button (round in shape; blue in color; with "SHOWER" underneath) has hiragana at the top: "おしり."
お尻; 御尻 【おしり】 (n): "bottom; buttocks"
(ii) The button to the right (also round; pink; with "BIDET" underneath) now has katakana at the top: "ビデ." Pronounced "bidi," it is Japanese transliteration of "bidet."