Feeling dizzy after cycling to work in Japan’s punishing summer heat, warehouse worker Isao Tabuchi headed for his company’s newest acquisition: a “refrigerator for humans”.
The phonebooth-sized machine, which blasts users with chilled air, launched this year and has already proved popular as Japan faces increasingly extreme temperatures.
“I was really able to recover thanks to that. Once you use it, it’s very, very cool”, Tabuchi, 51, said in Higashiosaka.
Tokyo-based industrial equipment distributor Trusco Nakayama has sold more than 300 units of the “Do Hiemon Box” since April. Priced at 1.5 million yen ($9,400), the machines are being used at construction sites, factories and warehouses, with golf courses and baseball stadiums also potential customers.
Japan recorded its hottest summer on record in 2025. This year, authorities introduced “kokushobi”, or “cruelly hot day”, for temperatures reaching 40°C (104F), urging people to treat extreme heat as a natural disaster.
Tokyo alone recorded nearly 120 heat-related deaths in the month to mid-August, while almost 63,000 people nationwide required emergency care this summer.
The heat is also disrupting businesses. A July survey found half of Japanese companies had experienced operational problems because of extreme temperatures, while nearly 88 per cent had strengthened measures to protect workers.
The Do Hiemon Box runs from a regular power socket, can be moved easily and automatically shuts off after 20 minutes.
Worker Taichi Konishi, 24, uses it about three times a day.
“I’ve only been in for about two minutes, but even that was enough for all my sweat to dry up”, he said.
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