Milestone-Proposal:Rice Cookers

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Docket #:2021-08

This is a draft proposal, that has not yet been submitted. To submit this proposal, click on the edit button in toolbar above, indicated by an icon displaying a pencil on paper. At the bottom of the form, check the box that says "Submit this proposal to the IEEE History Committee for review. Only check this when the proposal is finished" and save the page.


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1923 and 1955: ‘1923’ and ‘1955’ are the years in which 'Mitsubishi Electric Corporation' and 'Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd. (currently Toshiba Corporation) collaborated with Koshinsha Co., Ltd.' commercialized the world's first ‘electric rice cooker’ and ‘automated electric rice cooker’, respectively.

Title of the proposed milestone:

Commercialization of Electric Rice Cookers, 1923 and 1955

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

The world’s first ‘electric rice cooker’ and ‘automated electric rice cooker’ were commercialized in 1923 and 1955 by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Corporation collaborated with Koshinsha Co., Ltd., respectively. Each was aimed at a kitchen appliance for rice cooking, and its commercialization contributed greatly to the progress of home electrification in Japan and other East Asia countries.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

Tokyo Section

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: Tokyo Section
Senior Officer Name: Yoshiaki Nakano

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: Tokyo Section
Senior Officer Name: Yoshiaki Nakano

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: Tokyo Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Yoshiaki Nakano

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Isao Shirakawa
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Address: 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8310, Japan; GPS coordinates; N 35.6784426, E 139.7648084) and Toshiba Corporation (Address; 1-1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8001, Japan; GPS coordinates; N 35.6518120, E 139.7576211)

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. The head offices of both Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Corporation.

Are the original buildings extant?

The original buildings of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Corporation are both extant.

Details of the plaque mounting:

The plaque will be displayed in the entrance hall in the Main Building of each of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Corporation.

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

The plaque will be fixed on the wall of the entrance hall in the Main Building of each of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Corporation, which can be accessible to the public with permission.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

Mr. Takeshi Sugiyama (President and CEO, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) and Mr. Satoshi Tsunakawa (President and CEO, Toshiba Corporation)

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

The historical significance on the ‘electric rice cooker’ as well as on the ‘automated electric rice cooker’ is briefed as follows.

1. Historical Background of the Commercialization of ‘Electric Rice Cooker’ and ‘Automated Electric Rice Cooker’

In the past the rice cooking was carried out by means of non-automated dedicated rice cooking utensils, whereas at present it is by automated electric/gas rice cookers. The world’s first ‘electric rice cooker’ [1] and ‘automated electric rice cooker’ [2] were commercialized in 1923 and 1955 by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Toshiba Corporation collaborated with Koshinsha Co., Ltd., respectively [3, 4, 5]. As for the former, its commercialization started in the year when the ‘Great Earthquake of 1923’ occurred, and it was used mostly on board [4]. On the other hand, as for the latter, it was the first commercially successful rice cooker for home use [3, 4, 5], and its commercialization contributed greatly to the progress of home electrification in Japan and other East Asia countries.

2. History of the Commercialization of Electric Rice Cookers

The ‘electric rice cooker’ commercialized in 1923 by Mitsubishi Electric was composed of an aluminum pot with a heating coil inside and an inner cooking bowl to hold rice. Since this rice cooker had no turn-off function, it required constant monitoring during cooking. Due to lack of a turn-off function, Mitsubishi Electric began to develop an automatic turn-off facility attached to this rice cooker so that it could be automatically turned off when the water in the pot boiled off. However, it was not until around in 1930 that Mitsubishi Electric succeeded in attaching an automatic turn-off facility to the rice cooker, where it should be added that this revised rice cooker with a turn-off facility was still used on board [4].

3. History of the Commercialization of Automated Electric Rice Cookers

In 1952 a General Manager of Toshiba Corporation consulted with the President of Koshinsha Co., Ltd. about the collaboration in commercializing an ‘automated electric rice cooker’. As a result, the joint R&D (research and development) targeted at this rice cooker was approved by the two companies, and it was implemented as outlined in what follows [5]:

1) In 1952 Toshiba agreed with Koshinsha on the joint R&D to commercialize an automated electric rice cooker in such a way that Koshinsha filled the role of its development.

2) The two companies jointly confirmed that the key point of cooking rice was how to turn the raw starch with a crystal structure into the ‘gelatinized starch’ whose crystal structure was decomposed by heating.

3) Seeing that in the trial rice cooking, there were hard rice due to insufficient cooking as well as scorched rice due to overcooking, Koshinsha began to explore an effective method called ‘triple-chamber indirect rice cooking’ in order to detect the boil and to turn off the switch as specified in rice cooking.

4) Making the best use of this method, in 1955 Koshinsha managed to accomplish an automated electric rice cooker after three years’ desperate endeavors.

5) With the aid of this rice cooker, in 1955 Toshiba successfully placed the world’s first ‘automated electric rice cooker’ on the market by evolving a useful method called ‘double-chamber indirect rice cooking’.

This ‘automated electric rice cooker’ was used in the following manner: Rice was placed into a cooking bowl and water into a surrounding pot. When the water in the outer pot boiled off, the temperature of the bowl rose rapidly, and a bimetallic thermostat then activated and automatically turned off the heater to prevent burning of the cooked rice.

Eventually, in 1955 Toshiba anyhow embarked on a business of supplying the completed 700 units of this electric rice cooker, in which, however, sales did not grow as expected. Thus, Toshiba soon tried to improve strategically the supplying network so that a maximum monthly production of 200,000 units could be provided for the Japanese market. Four years later, rice cookers became widespread in half of all Japanese households, and the total production volume reached 12.35 million units [3, 4, 5].

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

In the early development phase, electric rice cookers encountered several obstacles, which were overcome as outlined below.

1. Obstacles to the Development of Electric Rice Cookers

The ‘electric rice cooker’ released in 1923 by Mitsubishi Electric was assembled on the basis of a simple concept of heating the rice to cook and turning off the cooker when the temperature of the bowl rose to a certain point. At the initial development stage, or even in the late 1920s, electric rice cookers were hardly spread for home use due to the actual underdevelopment of home electrification in Japan. Furthermore, the rice cooking was still influenced so severely by variation of room temperature that under-cooked rice was often produced. Thus, in the early development phase, many makers continued to experience failures in their ongoing trial-and-error approaches [3, 4].

2. Obstacles to the Commercialization of Automated Rice Cooker

Toshiba’s ‘double-chamber indirect rice cooking method’ adopted in the ‘automated electric rice cooker’ took more time for rice cooking and consumed more electricity than Mitsubishi Electric’s method in the ‘electric rice cooker’ [3]. Furthermore, since this method had no keep-warm function, the cooked rice cooled down so quickly that it was often necessary to move the cooked rice to heat-insulated serving containers. Accordingly, this method was gradually phased out in the late 1950s, until in 1965 Zojirushi Corporation embarked on a new business of supplying an advanced rice cooker with a keep-warm facility, using a semiconductor heat regulator. The product sold 2,000,000 units per year [3, 4].

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

The world’s first ‘electric rice cooker’ and ‘automated rice cooker’ had distinctive features as outlined in what follows.

1. Unique Development of Electric Rice Cookers

In old times the rice cooking was performed by using non-automated dedicated rice-cooking utensils, which have an ancient history (e.g. a ceramic rice cooker dated to 1250 BC is on display in the British Museum [3]). The ‘electric rice cooker’ put on sale in 1923 by Mitsubishi Electric did not have a turn-off function, and it required constant monitoring during cooking. Hence, Mitsubishi Electric soon started developing an automatic turn-off facility attached to this rice cooker. However, it was not until around in 1930 that Mitsubishi Electric succeeded in attaching an automatic turn-off facility to the rice cooker, where it should be noted that this revised rice cooker with a turn-off facility was still used on board [4].

2. Rice Cookers with Automatic Turn-Off Facility

The ‘automated electric rice cooker’ released in 1955 by Toshiba was developed by employing a method called ‘double-chamber indirect rice cooking’, as already stated. Although this rice cooker was equipped with an automatic turn-off facility, it had no keep-warm function, and the cooked rice cooled down so quickly that it was often necessary to move the cooked rice to heat-insulated serving containers. Thus, even though Toshiba produced 200,000 units per month, this method was gradually phased out in the late 1950s, until a different rice cooker with a keep-warm function became strongly required. Thus, in 1965 Zojirushi Corporation started a new business of supplying an advanced rice cooker with a keep-warm facility, using a semiconductor heat regulator. The product sold 2,000,000 units per year [3, 4], as already stated.

3. Subsequent Development of Electric Rice Cookers

Since the 1980s, most of higher-end electric rice cookers had used microprocessors to control the cooking process, often incorporating a memory and an electric timer that can be used to set the desired ‘ready time’. Since the 1990s, Japanese makers had been attempting to compete by seeking a niche in models with added values by increasing the number of features of their products. Eventually, a variety of much advanced methodologies had been persistently sought for microprocessor-controlled cooking, pressure cooking, IH (induction heating) cooking, thermal far-infrared radiation cooking, and so forth [3, 4, 5].

Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.

[1] ‘Product history of rice cookers’; http://www.goodspress.jp/columns/67395/2/ (in Japanese).

[2] ‘Kitchen revolution: Birth story of world’s first electric rice cookers’; http://allabout.co.jp/gm/gc/292625/ (in Japanese).

[3] ‘Rice cooker’; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_cooker

[4] ‘Rice cooker’; http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/炊飯器 (in Japanese).

[5] ‘Japan’s first electric rice cooker’; https://toshiba-mirai-kagakukan.jp/learn/history/ichigoki/1955cooker/index.j.htmh (in Japanese)

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.

References [1]. [2], [4], and [5] were written in Japanese, for which English abstracts are provided for reference in what follows.

1. Reference [1]: http://www.goodspress.jp/columns/67395/2/

This article briefly describes a product history of electric rice cookers developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. At first, it is stressed that the world’s first electric rice cooker was commercialized in 1923 by Mitsubishi Electric, which was not prevalent well for home use, mainly because the home electrification had been still seriously underdeveloped in Japan. In addition, it is also insisted that the old Japanese culture of holding the cooked rice in serving containers could be maintained in a different way by employing a new type of electric rice cooker and warmer commercialized successfully by Mitsubishi Electric in 1976. Following the early history of electric rice cookers, this article steps into an introduction of several rice cookers released afterwards by Mitsubishi Electric.

2. Reference [2]: http://allabout.co.jp/gm/gc/292625/

This article reveals a hidden story of the world’s first ‘automated electric rice cooker’ commercialized in 1955 by Toshiba Corporation. At first it pointed out that this automated rice cooker acted as the first contributor to the kitchen revolutionary. This rice cooker was commercialized by using the double- chamber indirect rice cooking method. This cooker is usually used as follows: Rice was placed into a rice bowl, and water into a surrounding container. When the water in the container boiled off, the temperature of the rice bowl rose rapidly. A thermostat then activated, and automatically turned off the heater to prevent burning of the cooked rice. This article also touches on an early series of Toshiba’s products; a rice cooker with a keep-warm facility commercialized in 1972, another one with microprocessor- controlled facilities released in 1979, a higher-end IH rice cooker put on sale in 1988, etc. Finally, it is added that since 1990 Toshiba had commercialized 6~7 million units of rice cookers par year.

3. Reference [4]: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/炊飯器

The contents of this article are almost the same as those of reference [3], that is, this article provides an overview of several kinds of rice cookers on 10 pages, as outlined bellow:

1. Overview

2. Electric Rice Cookers

3. Gas Rice Cookers

4. Other Rice Cookers

5. Major Makers


4. Reference [5]:

This article briefs a historic overview of the world’s first ‘automated electric rice cooker’ commercialized in 1955 by Toshiba. This overview consists of the following contents, each of which is written in both Japanese and English.

(1) Social background of developing the world’s first ‘automated electric rice cooker’,

(2) Koshinsha,’s collaboration with Toshiba, starting in 1952,

(3) Results attained by the joint R&D in 1952 through 1955, and

(4) Success story of the ‘automated electric rice cookers’.

Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).

Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.