Despite this site being primarily about Japanese rice cookers we also want to provide as complete information as we can. So with that in mind we want to mention the Aroma ARC-838TC rice cooker which in not actually Japanese but is manufactured by the Aroma Housewares Company based in San Diego. This is a great rice cooker if you want to start eating more rice but do not want to buy an expensive appliance. This is a basic model BUT to cook plain brown or white rice it has all the functionality you need.

This rice cooker from Aroma is a fairly large model that can cook up to 8 cups of rice at one time. This is enough to feed about 12 people. If you do not need a rice cooker this size, you could instead buy an Aroma ARC-733G which is a 3 cup rice cooker. The Aroma ARC-838TC certainly looks more basic than many of the top of the range Japanese rice cookers. However you have to ask yourself how much functionality you really need. My Zojirushi rice cooker has settings for normal rice, a speed cook setting, rice porridge and one for rice with red beans as well as a warming setting that can be used to keep the rice ready to be eaten for up to 12 hours. After living in Japan for over 5 years, I have only actually used the first of the cooking settings and the warming functionality.

U.S. made Aroma ARC-838TC rice cooker

The Aroma ARC-838TC appears to have just the basic options of cooking and warming. For me, that’s all I really need. So before going out and splashing over $100 on a luxury rice cooker, think about a cheaper model from a U.S. company and consider buying an Aroma ARC-838TC rice cooker. At under $35 they are a very affordable entry model into the world of rice cooking. You can find a host of cheap rice cookers on Amazon. They are a great place to find the best price.

Browse the cheapest models

What is the best Japanese rice cooker?

There are many companies that produce rice cookers including Panasonic, Sharp and Sanyo. However when you ask a Japanese person what rice cooker they have, the most popular answer that you are likely to hear is Zojirushi. Interestingly enough, this company may not be as well known in the West as the three preceding ones. However in the rice cooking field, Zojirushi is the market leader in Japan. I was fortunate enough to be given a rice cooker by my landlord when I first arrived in Japan. It was actually a Zojirushi. Many people consider these to be the best rice cookers. At that time, I was under the impression that this must have been a crappy brand and he’d found someone to dump it on. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out Zojirushi is the top dog!

Zojirushi NS-ZCC10

The picture above is the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 rice cooker. This model is for sale overseas. At first glance this might not be obvious. However all the buttons are in English! The rice cooker I use is similar to the one above although it is a slightly older model. It is the same except that mine does not come with the Neuro Fuzzy® technology. Zojirushi claim that their Neuro Fuzzy® logic technology allows their rice cookers to think for themselves and make tiny adjustments, when necessary, to temperature and heating time so that they cook perfect rice every time. However although my Zojirushi rice cooker doesn’t have this feature, I find that I am able to cook perfect rice easily. If you would like to buy a Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 rice cooker, please check out the reviews on this site.

EDIT: I have now purchased a new Japanese rice cooker which is even higher quality than the one featured on this page. My new machine is a Zojirushi NP-GD05 which is only available in Japan. It is the equivalent to the Zojirushi NP-GBC05 which is sold across North America.