JAPAN TODAY



 

At hotels in Japan, the bathing facilities usually fall into two broad categories. There might be a traditional setup, with compact shower booths where you wash off before entering a large communal tub to soak in, or you could have a more modern full-size in-room shower, often as part of a combination with an individual-sized tub.

Soon, though, if you’re traveling in Japan you might have the option of using a human washing machine.

Designed by Osaka-based bathroom fixture company Science, this pod is called the Mirai Ningen Sentakki, which translates to “Future Human Washing Machine,” but which the company also gives the official English designation Human Washer in the Future.

You start by stepping inside, stretching out in a reclining posture and closing the canopy. As relaxing imagery plays on a screen in front of you, such as footage of sea life and sunsets, soothing music plays and the pod fills with soapy water, turning into a bath. After a nice, leisurely soak, the water drains and nozzles spray you with water to rinse off any lingering soap suds, cleaning you without any scrubbing or expended effort on your part.


▼ Video of a Human Washer in the Future cycle, beginning with the on-screen text “I am a mermaid.”

https://youtu.be/KI9iFQeikx0


Though it was created as a conceptual vision of what bathing could be like in the world of tomorrow, the Human Washer in the Future does exist here in the present, with a single unit built by Science for display at the Expo 2025 world’s fair in Osaka.

Guests can even try it out for themselves, and a survey of those who had tried it back in midsummer showed that 77.6 percent of users said they were “very satisfied” with the experience, and an additional 21.1 percent said they were “satisfied.”
 

 

It wasn’t just individual visitors who were intrigued by the machine, either. Science also received strong positive feedback from hotel operators, and so while it initially had no plans to make the Human Washer in the Future available for purchase, it’s now received orders for six units to be installed in hotels and “leisure facilities” in Japan, with the later category likely referring to day spas, bathhouses, or fitness clubs.

In addition, the Human Washer in the Future on display at Expo 2025 will be transferred to Science’s showroom in Shin Osaka Central Tower building in late November, following the conclusion of Expo 2025, and visitors to the showroom will also be able to try it out.

 

As for sales to private individuals, high costs are probably going to make those unlikely, at least in the very near future. Aside from the machinery’s precision parts, its size and shape makes installation a costly venture in existing homes, with Science saying it would be comparable to the price of “an imported luxury car.”

 

The specific hotels which have put in orders for Human Washer in the Future units haven’t been revealed, but the company says that one of them is in Osaka, so between that and the Science showroom unit, there’ll be at least two places in the city to keep the Expo 2025 spirit of future bathing going.