Japan: Amid a heatwave, workers cool off in a fridge intended for human use

As Japan sweltered in the summer heat, Isao Tabuchi, a warehouse worker who was feeling unwell after cycling to work, headed for his company’s latest purchase – a human-sized fridge.

This telephone-booth-sized unit, inside which streams of cool air ensure icy comfort, was only launched this year, but has proved popular in a country that seems to be getting inexorably hotter.

„It really helped me recover. It gets very cool inside,” said 51-year-old I. Tabuchi to the AFP news agency in the western industrial city of Higashisakura.

Tokyo-based industrial equipment distributor “Trusco Nakayama” noted that since April it has sold over 300 “Do Hiemon Box” units, priced at 1.5 million yen (around 8,000 euros), since April.

Customers include construction sites, factories and warehouses, with plans to expand into golf courses in the future, according to the company’s sales representative, China Yamamoto. Baseball stadiums may also show interest.

Some of the company’s employees were sceptical, she added.

“It’s big, expensive and not the sort of product you can simply explain in words and have customers say: ‘Right, let’s buy it’. So there was a lot of uncertainty,“ she told AFP.

„Brutally hot“

Scientists say that human-induced climate change is causing extreme heatwaves to become more frequent and intense worldwide.

In 2025, Japan recorded its hottest summer since records began.

This year, the meteorological office began using a new term – ‘kokushobi’ or ‘extremely hot day’, when temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius. The agency urged the public to treat the extreme heat as a natural disaster.

In the month leading up to mid-August, nearly 120 heat-related deaths were recorded in Tokyo alone, whilst across the country, nearly 63,000 people required emergency medical assistance this summer.

Since last year, Japanese companies have been subject to stricter legal requirements to support employees working in the heat.

For example, construction sites must provide workers with appropriate clothing, such as jackets with built-in fans, as well as air-conditioned rest rooms and canopies to provide shade.

Under a new initiative introduced this year, Tokyo office workers are allowed to come to work in shorts – a groundbreaking move in a country where formal business attire still prevails.

The impact of rising temperatures on businesses in the world’s fourth-largest economy is very real.

Data from a survey conducted by “Teikoku Databank” in July showed that 50 per cent of companies stated that the intense heat had disrupted their operations.

Almost 88 per cent of respondents indicated that they had stepped up measures to help staff cope with the heat.

A vital investment

The “Do Hiemon Box” can provide a line of defence.

This device plugs into a standard electrical socket, is portable and does not consume much energy, according to its manufacturer.

To prevent overuse, it switches off automatically after 20 minutes.

Investment in heat-mitigation measures has become essential to retain the existing workforce and attract new recruits, said Yutaka Kono of “Konoe”, a specialist wholesaler of bolts and surveying equipment, where I. Tabuchi works.

Conventional air-conditioners and cooling units provide some respite, but Y. Kono’s company has many open spaces designated for lorries and heavy machinery.

““I was really surprised by this new concept of putting people inside a sort of fridge, and I really liked the fact that, upon entering the fridge, the human body can cool down to a safe temperature in an instant,” – Y. Kono told AFP.

“It made me think: we really do want to install one of these,” – he said.

Taichi Konishi, a 24-year-old worker, noted that he uses it about three times a day.

Having carried heavy boxes of metal tools and parts by hand between the pallets, he walks over, climbs into the box, sits down and smiles, running his fingers through his hair as if in the shower.

“It feels really good,” he told AFP.

“Although I’ve only been inside for about two minutes, even that was enough for all my sweat to dry,” he said happily.