Toto knocks on bathroom doors of China's 'new middle class'

Japanese toilet maker zeros in on several hundred million potential customers

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Toto demonstrated its ability to design entire bathroom spaces at this year's Kitchen & Bath China trade show in Shanghai.

AKI SUKEGAWA

TOKYO -- When Japanese bathroom fittings maker Toto began operating in China in 1980, "toilet" often meant a hole in a floor.

Now the company is promoting simple but sophisticated wares to the country's "new middle class" -- a demographic expected to grow to several hundred million people in the next decade.  

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