This is easily the best April Fool I’ve seen this year… I like it because it takes people’s misconceptions about Japan and smacks them over the head with them like a big Hokkaido salmon.
Digital World Tokyo (which seems like a great website that I’ve only just discovered), wrote this article on April 1st.
Tokyo Toilets Deliver Data Dump by Very Personal RSS
The best thing about the gag is that it got picked up by CrunchGear and published on the same day, April 1st.
Japanese Toilet Analyzes Stool, Beams Results to Cell Phones Via Personalized URL
Because of the fast turnaround, I’m willing to believe CrunchGear was in on the joke…
… but a look at some of the trackbacks shows that some people are believing this and reposting it. I’m sure we’ll see this come up again in a few months on some random Japanese tech sites or crazy news sites, then we’ll be so far removed from the April Fool’s Day it’ll be even more believable.
It’s a fine joke, made better by the photos of the “device” that just show a normal “washlet” type toilet… also take note of the hand that should be a full hand showing how to pass your hand over the sensor to make the toilet flush. I’m pretty sure they photoshopped it to make it look like the hand is flipping the bird.
Good work.