Japanese summers are now so unbearable that someone looked at a refrigerator and thought, logically, that humans should just go in one.<\/p>\n
The Do Hiemon Box<\/a>, created by Japanese refrigeration company SDRS and sold through industrial supplier Trusco Nakayama, is exactly what it sounds like: a metallic, glass-fronted booth the size and shape of a vending machine\u2014and that\u2019s not a coincidence, since the design was directly inspired by Japan\u2019s ubiquitous refrigerated vending machines. A person climbs in, sits on the built-in seat, and gets blasted with air chilled to around 5\u00b0C (41\u00b0F), targeting the head, neck, shoulders, and back. The interior holds a steady 15\u00b0C (59\u00b0F). Ten minutes inside is reportedly enough to reduce body temperature and relieve symptoms of heat exhaustion.<\/p>\n The context for this invention isn\u2019t hard to grasp. The summer of 2025 set a terrifying benchmark in Japan<\/a>: over 100,000 people were transported to hospitals by ambulance for heatstroke between May and September, the highest figure since national record-keeping began in 1898. The year before saw more than 2,000 estimated heatstroke-related deaths nationally. This year, 48 people were hospitalized in a single day in Tokyo in mid-July. Japan has introduced new official terminology<\/a> for days that exceed 40\u00b0C (104\u00b0F). The country is adapting, and apparently that now includes person-sized cooling units.<\/p>\n Japan Built a Human Refrigerator to Help People Survive Extreme Heat<\/p>\n The Do Hiemon Box offers three airflow settings, shuts off automatically after 20 minutes to prevent overcooling, and uses roughly half the electricity of a standard mobile air conditioner. No installation required, and it rolls on wheels, making it portable for construction sites, warehouses, factory floors, and outdoor event venues. One unit has already been donated to Maebashi City Hall in Gunma Prefecture, where it\u2019s available free of charge to anyone who needs to cool down during business hours.<\/p>\n