A Luxury Japanese toilet lids that Chinese tourists swarmed to buy in Japan during the Spring Festival. (Photo/www.dbw.cn)

(ECNS) - Luxury Japanese toilet lids that Chinese tourists swarmed to buy in Japan during the Spring Festival were in fact made in China at a cheaper price, the Qianjiang Evening News reported on Monday.

Toilet seats with functions such as heating, sanitizing, multiple water jets, and hot air dryers have become popular with Chinese visitors to Japan, but some of the seats were made by a manufacturer in Xiasha, Hangzhou province, one customer complains.

The Chinese tourist surnamed Wang, from east China's Hangzhou city, said he visited an electronics store in Osaka and was surprised to discover that one of the luxury toilet seats was made in his hometown, and that the manufacturer's name, Panasonic Home Appliances (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., was printed on the seat's packaging.

Li Jian Hong, a staff member with the toilet seat manufacturer, says similar toilet seats have been available for purchase in China since Panasonic introduced them there years ago, and that a production base was set up in Hangzhou province, which also exports products to other places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

One home appliance retailer says similar toilet seats have been available at its store and that they cost around 2,980 yuan ($476), while the same brand cost about 3,087 yuan ($493) in Japan.

Similar intelligent toilet seat brands, such as JOMOO and ARROW (both domestic brands) and TOTO, are also available online, with prices ranging from 2,000 yuan ($319) to 3,000 yuan ($480).

Li said "It is pointless to buy the seats in Japan because many of them could have been made in China with the same technology. China could manufacture better toilet lids, and those produced domestically would suit Chinese markets even better, with additional functions to resist humidity in bathrooms."