Why Japan's 1955 Rice Cooker Needed a Glass of Water

In the kamado stove days, someone had to stay right by the fire until the rice was done. So with no one watching, who switched off the automatic electric rice cooker that went on sale in Japan in December 1955? From a glass of water to keep-warm, time switches, microcomputers and IH, all the way to the outlets in today's kitchen, Sayo and Hau follow one watchman taking over from another. Chapters 00:00 With no one watching, who turns off the switch? 00:25 Chapter 1: In Search of a Pot That Needs No Watching 02:41 Where the glass of water comes in 03:51 December 10, 1955: 700 units go on sale 04:54 Chapter 2: Another Way of Cooking, and Fresh Rice in the Morning 06:57 Chapter 3: One Watchman After Another 08:24 1988: A pot that heats itself (IH) 10:04 Chapter 4: Today's Rice Cookers and the Kitchen Outlet 11:13 Chapter 5: The Story of More and More Outlets 12:36 Left out of the "Three Sacred Treasures" About this video Supervised by a licensed electrician (the channel owner). Field notes are from our supervising electrician's own experience. This video is a history of household tools, not advice on electrical work or safety. Scene images are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of real products, places or people. Diagrams are drawn by our own program. Narration is an AI voice (Kokoro-82M, Apache-2.0). Sayo/SAYO and Amehare Hau are used as unofficial fan works. This channel is an independent production, not an official one. Where sources disagree, we either leave the point out or say which source we follow. Main sources 100 Japanese Postwar Innovations: Automatic Electric Rice Cooker — Overview (in Japanese) https://koueki.jiii.or.jp/innovation1... 100 Japanese Postwar Innovations: Automatic Electric Rice Cooker — Background to the Innovation (in Japanese) https://koueki.jiii.or.jp/innovation1... URAGAWA Knowledge @Panasonic (Panasonic Electric Works official note), September 16, 2022 (in Japanese) https://uragawa-note.jpn.panasonic.co... Panasonic Newsroom, "100 Years Delivering 'Light and Convenience' – Panasonic's Iconic Inaugural Products, 'Wiring Devices'" (Japanese edition, October 12, 2018) (in Japanese) https://news.panasonic.com/jp/stories... PRODUCT HISTORY: Rice Cookers, Toshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation (in Japanese) https://www.toshiba-lifestyle.com/jp/... Yukio Matsumoto, "Changes in Automatic Rice Cookers" (自動炊飯器の変遷), Science of Cookery, Vol. 15 No. 2 (1982) (in Japanese) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/... JEMA (Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association), "History of Rice Cookers" (in Japanese) https://www.jema-net.or.jp/living/sui... Association for Electric Home Appliances (AEHA), "The History and Secrets of Rice Cookers" (in Japanese) https://shouene-kaden.net/try/kaden/r... Teruo Nakamura, "The Trend of the IH Rice Cooker," The Journal of the Institute of Electrical Installation Engineers of Japan, Vol. 31 No. 2 (2011) (in Japanese) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/... Kawasaki City, "Lecture 2: The Beginnings of the Electric Power Business and the History of Electrification" (record of a lecture by a TEPCO lecturer) (in Japanese) https://www.city.kawasaki.jp/kawasaki... Japan Electrical Wiring System Industries Association (JEWA), "On Installing Switches and Outlets" (2016-2) (in Japanese) https://www.jewa.or.jp/topics/den/28/... Ibaraki Prefectural Archives and History Museum, "The 'Three Sacred Treasures' (Electric Appliances) and the Automatic Rice Cooker" (in Japanese) https://www.rekishikan.museum.ibk.ed.... Other sources are shown on the source cards in the video (top right of the screen). Credits Voice: Kokoro-82M (Apache-2.0) Character art: Oyodo Hisaaki (大淀久明 様) Characters: Sayo/SAYO (小夜), Amehare Hau (雨晴はう) — unofficial fan work (非公式の二次創作) BGM: "Hirusagari Kibun" (昼下がり気分) by KK (DOVA-SYNDROME / OpenTracks) #RiceCooker #JapaneseKitchen #ShowaJapan