No.

I used one in Europe. Awful. Would never want one in my home.

We lived in Tokyo for a few years and our large western style expat apartment had 4 bathrooms, one of which had a Japanese style wet room. What no one tells you is that the wet room (tub and shower) is basically a pre-fab unit, so the whole thing is designed/manufactured as one unit that is waterproof. There was no tile or grout. I also had a housekeeper while we lived there, so I didn't have to clean the wet room. My kids were in elementary school when we lived there and they loved the wet room ... take a bubble back and be able to splash water all around!

I have never seen one of these pre-fab units sold in the USA, but I also never went looking for a way to get one or import one.

That's interesting, chispa! So different from my experience (which was considerably briefer, but made an impression, as you can tell). I may be remembering incorrectly, but the wet room I used in Europe was tiled—at least that's how I recall it. It certainly wasn't pre-fab. There was no tub. Using the shower got everything soaking wet: Walls, toilet, sink, and the bath towel. It saved space, I suppose, but it didn't save time, effort, or (in my case) sanity.

To my understanding, Japanese style wetrooms tend to have the bathing area separated from the toilet area, and a majority of American bathrooms combine the spaces.

But I do see a lot of small bathrooms with curbless showers show up- and sometimes the advice to waterproof the whole floor and/or walls and not just the shower. Some ADA bathrooms are built like wetrooms but aren't called wetrooms. I've seen some big bathrooms where one part of the room is left open and there is bathing there with other parts of the bathroom away from the bathing area. I've seen the trend of having the bathing area fully waterproofed and enclosed/separated from the toilet area too- but Americans don't tend to distinguish it as a wetroom and toilet room. It tends to be called something like a tub shower combo or a tub in a walk-in-shower in the bathroom.

Outdoor wetrooms can be pretty popular in some places, but they tend to have different names like poolside or beachside showers, garden spas, rustic washing.

So no, I don't think Japanese style wetrooms are common in the U.S.. But the U.S. does have other wetroom-like building going on that are not called wetrooms.

I went looking at the real estate site of the Japanese company we had used to find an apartment in Tokyo nearly 20 years ago! Turns out our building got torn down and a new and improved one got built in the same spot!

Here are some examples of wet room in other properties they listed. There is usually only one of these in a house or apartment with the other bathrooms in the house/apartment having a regular tub/shower or shower.

They have substantial drain and ventilation systems. One looks like tile, but they were large one piece panels for the least amount of seams.

1.

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This is not a picture of the wetroom I experienced in Europe, but it is remarkably close to what I remember. The main difference as I recall is that the tile was red and the sole window was on the same wall as the sink and toilet. And I don't remember a mirror. You can see why I've had a jaundiced view of wet rooms all these years.

Photo found on PleaseHateTheseThings.

Today I learned that this is not the norm for wet rooms. Good to know!

Japanese bathrooms with the bathtub and shower set up are extremely uncommon Im North America and very different from how Europe does it too. They are awesome in Japan, as Chispa pointed out, because of the set up. It’s basically a huge shower room with bathtub. The sink and toilet are elsewhere. I think you could set it up in a North American home with excellent planning and waterproofing.

The U.S. version of wetrooms that are more on trend tend to look like this...

It's just a glass wall instead of a more traditional wall separating the bathing area from the toilet/sink area. Tends to be called bathroom as a whole with the feature of a walk in shower with tub. I've seen a lot of conversations here about these areas, a lot of it about the slope of the floor and drains, the ease or not of cleaning around a freestanding tub in the area, heating/drafty concerns.

Maybe part of it is perception and marketing. A wetroom can sound icky to some, but a walk in shower with tub sounds grand to some. And cultural too- in a place that might have existed before regular plumbing, putting in a wetroom in the existing space might be more feasable than anything else. Akin to how clothes machines ended up in a lot of kitchens because that's where the best option for plumbing in the space was.

I don't want my tub anywhere near the shower! The tub in the master is just for looks and to check a resale box, as we are not bath people. I would hate to have to regularly deep clean a tub I never used.

It would be a good place to bathe the dogs and have plenty of protection from them shaking/splashing!

They look freezing cold - both aesthetically and IRL. I like a reasonably sized shower but these photos actually make me feel cold just looking at them!

Then there is the issue of soap scum. More of everything to clean. I love an outdoor shower. Maybe this week will be opening day. We will use it until the frost is on the pumpkin.