On average, people eat rice between one and two times per week. With so much rice being consumed every week, it’s easy to see why rice cookers are so popular. But very few people know where their rice cooker is manufactured. In this article, I’ll be looking at rice cookers made in Japan.
Which Companies Offer Rice Cookers Made in Japan? (The Short Answer)
Some people may be surprised to learn that there are a handful of Japanese rice cooker brands out there. Those brands are Tiger, Zojirushi, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Iris Ohyama.
Japanese Rice Cooker Brands (5 Options to Check Out)
Now that we know which brands produce rice cookers in Japan, let’s take a look at each one in a little more detail.
Tiger
The Tiger Corporation was founded in 1923 and its headquarters is located in Osaka, Japan. The company now also has a headquarters in Torrance, California but most of its production is still carried out in Japan.
Tiger produces a wide range of kitchen appliances, and this includes a handful of rice cookers. Tiger’s rice cookers are high-quality machines that are reliable and efficient. In fact, one of the company’s rice cooker lines won a Good Design Award back in 2016.
All of Tiger’s rice cooker manufacturing takes place at its Osaka office in Japan. The company is currently expanding. On top of its Japanese and American locations, it has newly built offices in India and Vietnam. But at the time of writing this article, its rice cookers are still being made in Japan.
Here’s a small list of some of Tiger’s rice cookers for those who are interested in taking a closer look at some of the company’s products.
- JAX-T Series Stainless Steel Micom Rice Cooker With Tacook Cooking Plate
- JNP Series Electric Rice Cooker
- JNP-S Series Stainless Steel Electric Rice Cooker
Zojirushi
Founded in 1918, Zojirushi is a Japanese company located in Osaka, Japan. The company produces vacuum flasks, hot water dispensers, and rice cookers.
Zojirushi is a very popular rice cooker brand due to the fact that its rice cookers are a little different when compared to other companies. This company’s rice cookers use induction to heat the whole pot as opposed to just the bottom of the pot as is standard. This ensures that the rice cooks evenly all over.
The Zojirushi brand is no stranger to receiving awards. The company has won 10 Good Design Awards in 2022 alone. The company has also received several United Mileage Plus awards and a handful of other awards too.
Not all of Zojirushi’s manufacturing takes place in Japan – some of the company’s manufacturing is carried out in China. But I was able to find out exactly which ones were made in Japan, so here’s a list of those products.
Panasonic
Panasonic was founded in 1918 in Osaka, Japan. Panasonic is a well-known brand that produces a wide array of electrical products. From TVs and rechargeable batteries to refrigerators and of course, rice cookers.
As you can imagine, with it being such a large brand, it has manufacturing facilities all over the world. Most of Panasonic’s rice cookers are manufactured in India. However, the company has at least one model that it manufactures in Japan. That is the Panasonic SR-THB185W Rice Cooker.
Toshiba
Toshiba was founded in 1875 in Tokyo, Japan. The company is well known for its TVs and laptops, but what many people don’t know is that the company also produces rice cookers.
Since Toshiba is such a large company, its manufacturing is carried out in facilities dotted all around the world. The company has facilities in the US, Canada, Vietnam, Brazil, China, and Japan.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out the exact facility where Toshiba manufactures its rice cookers. However, I did find one rice cooker marked as made in Japan. I found the same model on several seemingly reliable websites, each one stating that it was made in Japan. That model is the Toshiba RCDR10LSG IH Rice Cooker.
Iris Ohyama
Finishing off this list we have Iris Ohyama. This company was founded in 1971 in Sendai, Japan. This is also where the company’s headquarters is located. Today the company has offices in the US, the Netherlands, and a handful of other countries too.
According to the information that I found, it is a Japanese consumer plastic manufacturer. Basically, this means that the company produces a variety of plastic-based objects, and this includes rice cookers.
Whilst the company used to manufacture its products primarily in China and the US, due to the recent pandemic, it moved most of its production back to Japan to maximize profits. So, as of now, most of Iris Ohyama’s products are made in Japan. However, I am uncertain whether or not that will change over the next few years since the pandemic’s impact in this sense may not be permanent for companies such as this one.
As of writing this article, Iris Ohyama manufactures the Iris Ohyama IH Jar Rice Cooker and the Iris Ohyama “Meigara Daki” Rice Cooker in Japan.
