History of rice cooker

First invented in 1955, conventional electric rice cookers are inexpensive and ideal for beginners.

Toshiba Corporation of Japan invented the first cook and shut off rice cooker in 1955. Within the first year, Toshiba producing some 200,000 rice cookers per month, and by automatic rice cookers could be in half of all Japanese households.

Matsushita Corporation introduced its own model soon after and brought the rice cooker to the US market in 1957.

The earliest automatic rice cookers bear a resemblance to slow cookers used for stewing, with an electric element in a cylindrical base applying heat to a removable cooking vessel.

A thermostat triggers a power shut off when the vessel temperature exceeds the boiling point of water, ensuring that the cooked rice does not scorch.

Over the high-growth decades the three big electrical appliance producers, Toshiba, Matsushita and Hitachi – together with other niche players such as Zojirushi and Tiger Corporation, further developed the technology of their electric rice cookers for consumption on the Japanese markets.
History of rice cooker