Japanese rice cookers from Zojirushi, Panasonic, National, Mitsubishi, Sanyo and others

The first serious, but non-commercial, rice cooking devices were produced in the Taisho era, around the 1920s, in Japan, although the first appearance of the idea of cooking with electricity was back in the 19th century as Japan underwent the Meiji Restoration. However, the first commercially available device that resembled the rice cooker that we know today was produced but Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in the early post-war years. This was a rudimentary device, just a pot with an electric heating element inside and no automated controls. This meant that it had to be closely watched, so as it offered little or no benefit over traditional cooking methods, it was a commercial failure. Both Matsushita Electric (National, Panasonic) and Sony tried their hands in the early 1950s, but they too found little success.

However, Toshiba, after starting a rice cooker project in 1951, finally produced a commercial working model after five and a half years of research and development, entering the market in December 1956. This was a huge commercial success, and just four years after the introduction of this model an electric rice cooker was to be found in over half of all homes in Japan.

Now, models are extremely sophisticated; induction heating elements, pressure cooking, and fuzzy logic controls for getting that perfect rice are just some of the features that can be found in many of the rice cookers today, along, of course, with numerous cooking programs for coping with many different types of grains.

Panasonic started producing rice cookers in 1957 under the National brand in Japan, and became one of the very first products that they exported to the United States. They have been responsible for many technical innovations in the field, from developing the now standard magnetic-thermostatic switches in 1961, to introducing fuzzy logic to rice cooking in 1991, and induction heating in 1995.

Panasonic are probably the most trusted home electronics manufacturer in Japan, primarily on the strength of the reputation of their founder, Konosuke Matsushita, who was not just a businessman, but a leader in ethical management theories and practices. Not surprisingly, with the reputation for quality comes a slightly higher price tag. They are also at the forefront of Universal Design, making appliances usable by anyone. In rice cookers, one of the most obvious manifestations of UD is the big yellow ON button with black text. In tests by those with glaucoma and other eye problems, black on yellow was shown to be the most easy to read colour combination.

On the most famous Japanese comparative shopping site, Panasonic's latest medium-sized rice cooker ranks sixth out of 283 models, with overall customer satisfaction rated at 4.9 out of 5 stars, with no particular weaknesses.

Tiger are a more low-end manufacturer, working on the pile them high and sell them cheap principle.

On the most famous Japanese comparative shopping site, Tiger's latest medium-sized rice cooker ranks fourth out of 283 models, with overall customer satisfaction rated at 5.0 out of 5 stars, but the overall size of the device and the functionality levels both only rate as 4.0.

Zojirushi are quite heavy advertisers on Japanese television, projecting both an image of innovation with not just their new pressure cooker-style rice cooker that also cooks toppings for the rice under pressure, but also with their water pot-style kettle that automatically turns off in the dark, as Japanese tend to always keep a boiling pot handy, and other novel features that can save the owner money.

On the most famous Japanese comparative shopping site, Zojirushi holds the top two spots, with overall customer satisfaction rated at 4.4 and 4.9 out of 5 stars, but with two weak points being ease of use and ease of cleaning.

One claim to fame they have is the NJ-WS10 rice cooker, where the pot is made out of a single ingot of carbon, hand-turned to perfection, then individually numbered!

On the most famous Japanese comparative shopping site, one of Mitsubishi's more mundane efforts holds the third-top ranking, with overall customer satisfaction rated at 4.9 out of 5 stars, with the one weak point being ease of cleaning.