Forget the AC-Japan’s got a fridge for humans
Japanese companies are increasingly adopting 'human fridges'—specialized cooling booths—to help workers cope with record-breaking summer heat. The product has seen steady sales as extreme weather events become more frequent in Japan.
Why it matters
This reflects the growing industrial and commercial adaptation to climate change and the increasing health risks posed by extreme heat.
Konoe employee Taichi Konishi takes a break in a cooling box for workers also known as a “human fridge” at the company’s warehouse, a specialist wholesaler of screws and surveying equipment, on a hot day in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture on August 21, 2026. | Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
Higashiosaka, Japan — Feeling dizzy and unwell 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, where jets of chilled air ensure ice-cold comfort, only launched this year but has proved popular in a country that seems to be getting inexorably warmer.
“I was really able to recover thanks to that. Once you use it, it’s very, very cool,” Tabuchi, 51, told AFP in the western industrial city of Higashiosaka.
READ : Japan rolls out cooling toilets, reduced work hours to beat heat
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