Our Stories

LIXIL provides the "Link to Good Living". Everything we do is driven by our desire to bring better living solutions to the world today and to future generations.

What Does It Take to Reinvent the Toilet?

The toilet as we know it has existed in much the same form for centuries. So where do you start if you are charged with reinventing it? ...

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Backing People and Passions to Drive Innovation

“During the harvest season, I spend weekends picking apples with my children, and making and labeling the juice. It’s the kind of life I always wanted.” ...

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How Toilets in Schools are Catalyzing Change in Communities

What comes to mind when you think about the facilities that are vital to running a school? Classrooms with desks and chairs? Libraries? Computer rooms? Toilets are probably not high up on the list. ...

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Building the Future by Recycling the Past

Three expressways intersect to the west of Japan’s Toyama Prefecture; each brings raw and scrap materials to the region’s aluminum producers and transports newly smelted ingots to global markets. ...

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Reinventing Consumer Connections in the World's Largest E-commerce Market

China’s e-commerce market has grown at breathtaking speed. A little under two decades ago, the country accounted for less than 1% of the value of global online transactions. ...

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Tackling Household Water Inefficiency in a Water-Stressed World

Imagine a button in your shower that would allow you to save water and energy without you noticing a single difference to your showering experience. ...

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Plugging the Plumber Shortage

“If you’re a plumber, you have the ability to impact people’s lives,” says Ryan Marsh, watching the WorldSkills plumbing competition unfold before him in Germany. Ryan is a curriculum support manager for engineering at College of Cape Town, South Africa. ...

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Pioneering Solutions to a Sewage Crisis in Rural Alabama

“I had to choose between buying Christmas presents for my grandchildren or using the money to get the septic tank flushed to prevent raw sewage backing up into my home.” This dilemma, faced by Lowndes County resident Perman Hardy, describes an issue that affects many people in Alabama’s Black Belt region and across the US, from New York and Michigan to Nevada and Hawaii. ...

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Meet the Citizen Developers Changing How We Work

It’s a tricky job predicting when the inks used to decorate tiles need replenishing – and manually checking stock levels of those inks is time-consuming. ...

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Design and Brand Identity Transformation at LIXIL

A defined curve. A strong taper. A vivid splash of red. These design elements are just the most visible signs of a deep transformation at American Standard, a world-renowned bathroom and kitchen brand whose name dates back almost a century and a half. ...

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Three Changes to Prepare Europe’s Sanitary Industry for Growth

One of the unexpected effects of the pandemic was a meteoric rise in DIY. The global home-improvement market grew by nearly 14% in 2020 , with Europe taking a large share of this growth. ...

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Three Steps to Creating an Inclusive Culture

We live amidst the Great Resignation. The Great Reshuffle. The Great Renegotiation. Call it what you will, but the world of work can never be the same. The pandemic has given new and sudden impetus to work-life trends long in the making. ...

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From Linear to Circular: Giving Products in Your Home a New Lease of Life

Today, the natural resource crises are forecasted to become one of the top five critical existential threats to the world in the next five to ten years, and like many environmental problems, the issue is intertwined with others. ...

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Crafting Unique Experiences as well as Products

In an age when products can be bought with a mere few taps on a device and delivered to your doorstep shortly after, physical retail businesses are looking to new experiences to stand out. These can vary in shape, size and form, from setting up playgrounds and dog runs within shops to creating unique photogenic desserts to draw in active social media users. Such experiences alone serve as incentives for consumers, helping to generate long-term loyalty and business. ...

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GROHE X: A Digital Brand Experience

Almost halfway through 2021, the pandemic continues to affect the world. We are still adjusting to “the new normal” in all aspects of life, trying to find the right balance; ...

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Design-led Innovation Delivering True Value

Research from the Design Management Institute has shown that companies that make design part of their strategy have comparatively higher share price performance. How can the power of design be leveraged to build brands and generate innovation? ...

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Responsible Use of Plastics

Did you know the history of plastics dates back to the early 1900s? Following the creation of the most versatile kind of synthetic material, it was quickly adopted around the world, making more items accessible and affordable for many. ...

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Empowering our People for an Agile Future

Walking through the doors at LIXIL’s former Kasumigaseki headquarters in 2015, it would be hard to differentiate the office from any one of the traditional Japan Inc. ...

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Turning the Waves of Change into Opportunities

How has LIXIL fared amid COVID-19? How has the Medium Term Plan (MTP) helped prepare for the “new normal”? What do we need to grow for the long term and contribute to society?...

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SATO Tap: a New Handwashing Solution for All

Like many of the best ideas, Daigo Ishiyama‘s came to him out of the blue. His six-year-old son was playing in the bath, letting water dribble from one plastic toy to another, when inspiration struck....

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New Ways of Working Take Flight at LIXIL

Events in 2020 have been dominated by the unprecedented spread of the COVID-19 virus worldwide. Its impact has been profound, forcing people to change how they work and live. As of mid-April, more than 2.5 million cases have already been recorded worldwide....

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INAX: Rituals of Water

As a people, the Japanese have always had a close and symbiotic connection with water, a relationship that goes far beyond the use of this elemental liquid in everyday life. Even today, water purifies, heals and serves to recharge both body and mind....

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Refreshing our sanitation targets, standing firm on our commitments

How do we begin to tackle a problem as vast as poor sanitation? Over a quarter of the world’ s population still don’ t have access to safe, clean toilets, and every day, approximately 800 children under the age of...

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Develop attractive and differentiated products

Developing Attractive and Differentiated Products

LIXIL recently appointed Paul Flowers to an expanded role of Chief Design Officer, building on the work he has done at LIXIL Water Technology (LWT) to further integrate design into the entire organization's DNA...

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Conserving Water: The New Normal

Cape Town resident Kirsty Alberts washes her family's bed linen once every two weeks and toilets at home are only flushed once or twice a day, when absolutely necessary. Carla dos Santos limits herself to two minutes under the shower and her garden has turned brittle and brown because it can no longer be watered...

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Insulating For a Warmer and Healthier Home

Traditional Japanese houses are constructed with deep eaves, wooden corridors and verandas, and paper sliding screens. These and other ingenious designs improved ventilation in the house, providing comfort in Japan's hot and humid climate and protecting against the long spells of rain, dampness, and summertime heat...

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Open Kitchen, Open Communication

In Japan, people are sharing photos and videos of their kitchens and cooking on social media. The spread of smartphones has led to constant connectivity and increased use of social media, allowing private moments such as meals and family time at home to be aired around the world...

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Tackling Open Defecation in India

A long time ago, a religious Hindu text stated that a person who felt the call of nature should fire an arrow from their home. According to the "Vishnu Purana," the person could then safely defecate beyond the spot where the arrow fell to earth...

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Shaping the Future of Faucets, One 3D Layer at a Time

For a designer, there is nothing more exciting than being asked to remove all constraints, ignore all the conventions, and explore new frontiers offered by a cutting-edge manufacturing technique ― in this case: 3D printing...

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Bathed in Culture and Tradition

It is said that the Japanese love to bathe. From places to cleanse the body and mind, to spaces where people have gathered to socialize and recuperate, Japan's bathing culture and baths have developed in a unique way...

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Remodeling the Housing Market

As Japanese society changes, companies here are being required to alter and add to the products and services that they provide to meet new needs. Arguably, nowhere are those changes more visible than in Japan's homes...

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LIXIL's AQUA CERAMIC makes bathroom stains a thing of the past

One hundred years is a long time, by any measure. During the century ahead of us we can expect countless unforeseen events to occur. By the same token, we can take comfort in the knowledge that certain things will not happen...

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The Technology of Water

As design head at Grohe, Paul Flowers helped create some of the world's most beautiful kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Now, as Chief Design Officer of LIXIL's Water Technology Group, he reveals how the company is applying design, technology and social purpose to reimagine the most intimate spaces in our homes...

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Tackling Challenges in Global Sanitation & Hygiene

Poor sanitation is a leading cause of child mortality. Today, an estimated 800 children under five years of age die every day from diarrheal disease caused by lack of hygienic water and sanitary living situations, and 950 million...

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