Rice cooker

Electric rice cookers were developed in Japan, where they are known as suihanki (Japanese: 炊飯器, literally, "boil-rice-device").

[3] The ER-4,[4][5] introduced by Toshiba on December 10, 1955[5][6][7] (or 1956[3]), was the world's first automatic electric rice cooker for home use.

After about 20 minutes, the water would evaporate and the temperature would rise rapidly, which the thermostat would detect and turn off.

[3][6][7][1] The initial launch price was 3,200 yen, about one-third of the average college graduate's starting monthly salary.

By 1960, four years after its introduction, the automatic electric rice cooker was in use in about half of all Japanese households.

The EC-36 was a cheaper product that used a single pot, reducing the amount of metal used and making it more competitive in terms of sales.

It also had a great impact on society, giving housewives more time and accelerating the women's liberation movement.

More advanced cookers may use fuzzy logic for more detailed temperature control, induction rather than resistive heating, a steaming tray for other foods, and even the ability to rinse the rice.

[13] Steam rice cookers have been shown to be effective for decontamination of face masks.