LIXIL UD Concepts and Policies

LIXIL researches and develops products based on UD concepts and policies.

LIXIL universal design (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

The features of LIXIL universal design

Promoting UD in Housing

The Body Hug Shower to Suit All Lifestyles

In June 2022, LIXIL launched the Body Hug Shower that offers a new sensation of being gently enveloped in hot water and warmed throughout your body. It seeks to offer the perfect full-body bathing comfort and warmth. Indeed, five minutes in this shower will warm your whole body much more effectively than a conventional shower.

As families, workstyles, and lifestyles have diversified in today’s world, the way in which we wash our bodies differs from person to person. Now, more people are opting to just take a shower rather than get in the bathtub, whatever the season. Our survey suggests that people who choose to shower rather than take a bath prioritize easy-use, time-saving bathing, but also seek optimal warmth.

When we developed the Body Hug Shower, we interviewed employees of various ages and genders and employees who use wheelchairs to help create a product that satisfies the needs of those who enjoy the ease of showering but also want to thoroughly warm their bodies. We have sought to provide ultimate comfort for a diverse range of people by carefully positioning the shower’s 10 nozzles and considering the way in which the water ejects from the nozzles, as well as the volume of water released and the range of motion of the shower arm. Using the Body Hug Shower reduces the number of times you use and clean the bathtub, cutting the amount of water used and the energy required to heat the water and reducing CO₂ emissions by approximately 36% compared to traditional bathing in a bathtub.^*1 It can also help save money on your water and gas bills. Thanks to its space-saving dimensions and design, the shower does not dominate the available space and can be installed into your current bathroom without changing the faucet.^*2

We are receiving an increasing number of inquiries about the product from hospitals and nursing care facilities across Japan because it enables care recipients who find it hard to step into the bathtub to enjoy comfortable bathing and reduces the burden on caregivers. LIXIL remains committed to swiftly grasping consumer needs and developing products and services that are easy and comfortable for everyone to use, regardless of their age, gender, level of ability or disability, and other factors, and to helping improve the quality of people’s lives.

*1 [Basis of estimated calculation] Calculated based on the assumption that a family of four (two males and two females) switches from having a bath to using the Body Hug Shower on the 261 weekdays in a year (appropriate minimum water flow rate of 9L/min with an allocation of 5 minutes per person).
[Product used in the comparison] Practical volume of water in the bathtub: 240L (1600mm size) with a calculated drop in temperature of 7°C after four hours in an environment with an ambient temperature of 10°C±2°C (that temperature drop is halved for half of the year).
[Source] Calculated internally
[CO₂ emissions factor] Water: 0.49kgCO₂/m³, gas: 2.23kgCO₂/m³
These figures are meant to serve as a guide and do not represent a guarantee that the described reduction in CO₂ emissions will always be achieved.

*2 Depending on the way the fixtures have been installed, it might be necessary to replace the faucet.

Body Hug Shower (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

Art Brut Ecocarat: Tiles featuring artworks by neurodivergent artists

LIXIL has launched a new product line that incorporates art brut artworks, drawn by neurodivergent artists contracted to Heralbony Co., Ltd., into our Ecocarat tile in October 2022. By paying license royalties out of the product sales revenue to the artists, we aim to create new revenue streams for them and an inclusive society in which everyone can play an active role in collaboration with Heralbony Co., Ltd.

* “Corporate Responsibility (CR) Strategy” mentioned in the video refers to our new “Impact Strategy.” (From April 2023, it was replaced by the Impact Strategy.)

Employment opportunities for people with disabilities are increasing thanks to the recent growing application of the statutory employment quota for people with disabilities in Japan. However, in reality, the number of places where they can work is still limited. SDG goal 8, which focuses on “decent work and economic growth,” includes Target 8.5 to “by 2030 achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.”

Through our collaborative project with Heralbony Co., Ltd., LIXIL aims to solve these kinds of social issues by presenting the artists’ products to the world at large in the form of a social business rather than a type of support or welfare, and by changing the negative image against disabilities in the process. We not only offer sophisticated design and a sense of comfort that the materials bring, but also explore the possibility of creating better homes and a better society by fostering the richness of people’s minds that arises from deepening understanding among diverse individuals through our products.

Art Brut Ecocarat (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

DOAC Front Door Electric Opening System

DOAC won a Social Products Award at the 8th Social Products Awards held in 2021 on the theme of products and services that help people with disabilities to live a full life and enjoy their work. DOAC was applauded for broadening the scope of independent activity for people with disabilities and improving the lives of a wide range of people. We were also recognized for our agile development approach, being based on a clear understanding of the needs of potential users gained through talking directly with them during the development stage.

* Apple Watch is an Apple Inc. trademark registered in the US and other countries.

DOAC (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

KINUAMI U: Bathing Assistance Foam Shower

LIXIL introduced marketing methods using the Makuake crowdfunding service together with NITTO CERA to work on the development of the KINUAMI U. This generated fundraising income that far exceeded our target, and also helped us understand its high demand in the nursing care sector. Then, we started selling the KINUAMI U to hospitals and nursing care facilities across Japan.

KINUAMI U (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

Other examples of LIXIL’s UD products and services (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

Promoting Inclusive Public Toilets

LIXIL aims to realize a public toilet system that everyone can use comfortably and with peace of mind to help solve one of the biggest barriers to achieving an inclusive society, namely public toilets.

Gender-Neutral Toilets for a Barrier-Free Life with Dementia

Gender-neutral toilets for a barrier-free life with dementia (Japanese only) >

A-SPEC Automated Public Toilet Design Service

Toilets Segregated by Function to Meet Diverse Needs

At the gender-neutral toilet facility at our former headquarters, users were presented with the concept “choose a cubicle that best suits you.” It was loosely zoned, with the central corridor serving as a shared gender-neutral area with a men’s area to the left and a women’s area to the right. The gender-neutral area featured a barrier-free toilet with a sink for ostomy pouch users and facilities for babies, as well as two toilet cubicles that included their own sinks. With even private urinal cubicles in the men’s area, the toilet provided a space that made it easy for all users to choose the facilities best for them.

Stronger Communication of UD Concepts

The UD Website: LIXIL Public Toilet Lab

The website features tips on creating public toilets that fit the needs and solve the problems of users, and in FYE2023 we also added content on toilets in retail stores.

LIXIL universal design (Japanese only, a new page will open) >
LIXIL Public Toilet Lab (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

Revising Public Toilet and Elderly Facility Planning Books

Following revisions made to Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s Architectural Design Standards Taking into Consideration Smooth Use by Elderly People and Persons with Disabilities, in FYE2023, we revised our Public Toilet Planning Book and ELDERLY FACILITY PLANNING BOOK. In the future we will conduct internal and external education based on these revised guidelines, and propose public toilets designed with consideration for wheelchair users and other people with disabilities, and their caregivers.

Subtitles for TV Commercials and Our Online Showroom

The majority of LIXIL TV commercials (excluding those on satellite broadcasts) have included subtitles since 2022.

Commercials with subtitles that can be activated via the TV remote control are considered one of the most effective means of conveying information to people with hearing disabilities, and while over 90% of TV shows are now available subtitled, the majority of companies do not make their commercials subtitle compatible, with just 1.02% estimated to have subtitles in Japan (as of June 2021, according to the Council for the Promotion of Subtitled Commercials).

A LIXIL commercial with subtitles

Long committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, LIXIL was ahead of other companies by several years in offering subtitles. At first, it was not at all easy to achieve this because the systems for broadcasting commercials with subtitles had not yet been fully established at the TV stations and we also had a difficulty in finding out how to produce our closed caption.^*1 However, after talking directly with employees with hearing disabilities, we were convinced that the captions were effective and so we found a way to make it a reality. As a result, in the first half of FYE2023, LIXIL subtitled commercials reached 135,000 people with hearing disabilities, part of a wider audience of 2.6 million people including senior citizens with difficulty in hearing.^*2

Some employees with hearing disabilities decided to join LIXIL after seeing our subtitled commercials, which is a result of this initiative that drives diversity and inclusion.

In December 2022, we also began providing customer service at the LIXIL Online Showroom using AmiVoice ScribeAssist, a speech-to-text app powered by AI voice recognition. This new service provides subtitles for what the coordinator says, which helps people with hearing disabilities, older people who have difficulty in hearing, and non-native Japanese speakers understand and comfortably use our online customer service.

Our employees with hearing disabilities participated in the trial phase and played an active role in developing the service. By leveraging the knowledge and perspectives of our diverse workforce, we are committed to creating products and services that meet a wide variety of needs.

*1 Subtitles that viewers can choose to display or not display.

*2 Estimated from the actual numbers of LIXIL TV commercial broadcasts from April to September 2022.

Subtitles in our Online Showroom (Japanese only) >

Promoting Broader Understanding of Diversity

UD Training for Employees

One example was the 15 online sessions we conducted for coordinators who guide customers around our showrooms to enable them to learn more about the points to consider when designing toilet, bathroom, or kitchen spaces in the home, the products we can offer, and various systems such as the nursing care insurance system. The lectures were given to approximately 6,300 employees.

In addition, in order to improve our ability to make proposals for facilities for older people, a business area that we are striving to strengthen, we created a catalog called ELDERLY FACILITY PLANNING BOOK in FYE2022, and conducted a total of five online training sessions for sales representatives who interact with architectural design companies, general contractors, and facility design companies. Roughly 300 people participated in the sessions. Then in FYE2023, we conducted a total of 10 online training sessions on the revised Architectural Design Standards Taking into Consideration Smooth Use by Elderly People and Persons with Disabilities for our public toilet sales representatives, with around 150 participants.

In April 2022, we also set up a new internal website that offers a wide range of UD-related information and content to provide information and conduct training for our sales departments.

Education for Future Generations

So far, a total of 127 sessions have been held at schools, events, and other venues for 4,302 participants. The program is designed to highlight examples of universal design in nearby streets and individual homes to deepen students’ understanding of diversity in terms of gender, age, nationality, and ability and disability, and encourage them to think what they can do and how they can act on it.

Many of the students will go on to become occupational therapists in health, medical, and welfare facilities, so we hope that LIXIL's UD know-how will be utilized in rehabilitation work (the acquisition and recovery of movement for daily living) at their places of employment, and in water-related planning for home renovations as part of municipal support for care recipients.

Universal Run: Sports Prosthetic Limb Experience Class >
LIXIL’s Outreach Classes >

Public Toilets and D&I Seminar