Japanese Appliance has a Green/Yellow Ground Wire coming out of it, What should I do?

Question

So I recently purchased a Japanese Toiletseat thing (I can't read japanese but I've just been translating little by little), and it has a ground wire (a green/yellow wire) Coming out of the back, right next to the plug.

Should I just ignore it? On the manual, it says to connect the wire to the ground socket

The power cable & ground wire look just like this:

I am tempted to just shove that thing into a ground socket, or alternatively try to buy an adapter that looks like that outlet, that will plug into a 3 prong socket.

Answer 1

What you need to do is replace the cord with a proper cord and install a US compatible plug of the proper voltage and amperage. Assuming this appliance is 120V, it should be plugged into a GFI protected receptacle. DO NOT just cut off or ignore the ground wire.

Answer 2

For the "why" part see example #1 from the Digital Museum of Plugs and Sockets, and more pictures on other pages. One common style of outlet in Japan has a separate screw connection for the grounding wire, usually under a plastic flap.

For what to do: this toilet seat should be rewired to a standard three prong plug available at any hardware store (NEMA 5-15P for North America). Like any bathroom outlet, yours verify yours is three prong and GFCI protected, and test the GFCI using the test button. After all your hiney is right above water, ground is important (and I say that as a fan of keeping ungrounded K&T where appropriate https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/20279/5960 ).