• 2 min read
Japan’s 5-minute cooling booth targets heat at work
Japan has launched a booth-like personal cooler for worksites and schools, promising noticeable relief in five minutes for 1.5 million yen.
Image: ITzine
Japan has unveiled an unusual heat-relief booth that looks a lot like a human-sized refrigerator. Called the Do Hiemon Box, it is designed not for homes but for construction sites, warehouses, schools, and other workplaces where summer heat can become dangerous early in the day.
The unit was developed by Japanese company SDRS, which makes refrigeration equipment and vending machines, and is sold by industrial supplier Trusco Nakayama. Inside, instead of shelves, there is a chair and a targeted cooling system. The booth maintains an internal temperature of about 15 degrees Celsius, while a 5-degree stream of cold air is directed at the head, neck, shoulders, and back.
According to the companies, users should feel a noticeable effect in five minutes, while 10 minutes inside is meant to help lower body temperature and ease overheating.
Key features include:
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- three cooling modes
- automatic shutoff after 20 minutes
- wheels for moving it between sites
- no on-site installation required
SDRS is also emphasizing power use. By its calculations, the booth consumes about half the electricity of a standard spot air conditioner, while avoiding installation work. That matters for employers that cannot quickly equip every location with fixed climate systems.
The Do Hiemon Box is already on sale in Japan through industrial distributors for 1.5 million yen before tax, or about $9,230. It is being positioned as business equipment, not a consumer appliance. Earlier this year, one unit was even provided to Maebashi City Hall, where people can use it for free during working hours.
That pitch reflects a broader shift in Japan, where extreme summer heat is increasingly treated as a routine workplace risk rather than a seasonal inconvenience. With authorities now using special wording for days when temperatures exceed 40 degrees Celsius, companies and municipalities are looking for more targeted cooling options alongside conventional air conditioning.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via ITzine
