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 Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the western industrial city of Higashiosaka.
Tokyo-based industrial equipment distributor Trusco Nakayama said it has sold more than 300 units of the "Do Hiemon Box" since April, priced at 1.5 million yen ($9,400).
Customers include construction sites, factories and warehouses, and will expand in the future to golf courses, said company sales agent China Yamamoto. Baseball stadiums may also be interested.
