The 20 Best Kitchen Tools from Japanese Brands

Zojirushi Induction Rice Cooker

$357 at Amazon View on Target $365 at Williams Sonoma

Zojirushi’s high-tech rice cooker took the Best Overall title in our tests when pitted against eight other models. Given its wide array of features and high capacity, this is a great model for rice enthusiasts or pros. According to Sakamoto, there’s “so much to love about this rice cooker. Just add rinsed rice and water, and push a button,” she says. One of its greatest features is the induction heating system, which provides a degree of precision that analog cookers cannot. 

It has presets for brown rice, white rice, and porridge, “and even a timer if you want hot rice for breakfast,” says Sakamoto. It has a 5.5-cup dry capacity, so this cooker isn’t for those with limited countertop or storage space, and the controls might seem daunting to those unfamiliar with them. Clear directions, however, make the cooker very easy to use. “The Zojirushi rice cookers are sturdy and a cook's best friend,” says Sakamoto.

Mac Knife 8-Inch Hollow Edge Chef's Knife

$155 at Amazon View on Cutleryandmore.com

This 8-inch chef’s knife from Mac won the Best Overall title when we tested it against 19 other chef’s knives. It’s a lightweight knife that you shouldn’t be shy about using for heavy work, thanks to its solid, extremely sharp blade that glides through tomatoes and hard squash with equal ease. The thin, hollow-edged (dimpled) blade prevents food from sticking while cutting and is well-balanced with the knife’s handle. The pakka wood handle is sturdy and comfortable to grip, providing slip resistance and reducing strain on the wrists and hands while cutting. The full-tang design makes rocking the knife while cutting easier, too.

Shun Classic 8-Inch Chef's Knife

$130 at Amazon $130 at Williams Sonoma $130 at Wayfair

Shun is a favorite brand among professional chefs and cooks because of the reliability and quality of its lightweight, sharp knives. The Classic Blonde delivers on all fronts, with 34 layers of stainless steel on each side of the blade and a comfortable birchwood handle. It’s a high-end knife (and long-time editor favorite) that looks great while being sturdy and reliable. The Shun’s slightly curved Western-design-leaning blade allows for rocking while slicing and chopping, achieving paper-thin slices. If treated well, this knife has excellent longevity, provided you hand-wash and thoroughly dry the blade and protect its edge in your knife drawer.

Bento & Co Magewappa Maru

View on Bentoandco.com

“Bento & Co. is a charming shop in the heart of Kyoto. We always visit when in the former capital. The most elegant bentō is the Magewappa, made out of wood with supple curves. It is a luxurious lunchbox that brings joy each time it's used. The aroma of the cedar infuses the meal, and as it's natural wood, the bentō breathes, so the rice doesn't get too sticky as it would in a plastic bentō,” Sakamoto says. Magewappa refers to the wood bending technique used to construct this box, which Japanese woodworkers have used for more than 400 years. This handmade box from Bento & Co is an investment, but if properly treated and hand-washed, it will last for years. It’s an impressive-looking box with longevity, and it will keep your food fresh and never soggy.

Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Bread Maker

$400 at Amazon $400 at Target $400 at Williams Sonoma

We named the Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus the best bread maker we tested because of its quality and ease of use. The large LCD control screen is easy to read and intuitive to use, and there are presets and programmable cycles to customize each stage of the breadmaking process. The two dough blades ensure even mixing and help proper gluten development. After mixing and proofing, the loaves bake evenly with golden crusts. All the components, including the non-stick baking pan, are easy to clean.

Zojirushi Food Jar

$30 $25 at Amazon View on Zojirushi.com

This insulated jar doesn’t fit the image that comes to most people’s minds when using the term bento box, but hear us out. This insulated food jar from Zojirushi is “excellent for soups or hearty stews,” Sakamoto says. Stews, rice, and noodles can leak and drip, but this stainless steel jar’s tight seal prevents that. The vacuum-insulated walls keep your hot food hot (or vice versa), and the 11.8-ounce capacity ensures a decent meal size. The jar resembles a stubby travel coffee mug, and the size makes it easy to eat directly out of.

Tojiro DP 2-Piece Chef's Knife Set

$150 at Amazon

A Gyutou resembles a Western-style chef’s knife with a rounded blade that allows you to rock the knife while slicing and chopping. The Tojiro DP came out best in its class when we tested Japanese knives and held its own against many knives of different designs. Because of the weight and blade thickness, a Gyutou’s best uses are slicing meats and vegetable work. The blade is too thin for chopping joints or large bones, so you would want to consider using a cleaver for those tasks. That exclusion aside, the Tojiro DP is a versatile knife with a sharp blade that can handle most light-duty jobs and glide through a tomato without snagging the skin or squeezing the juice. Here, it's sold as a set with a Tojiro 4-inch paring knife.

Miyabi Kaizen 9.5-inch Bread Knife

$180 at Amazon $180 at Williams Sonoma $180 at Wayfair

It’s difficult to talk about this knife without first addressing the obvious: this is a good-looking piece of steel. That fact did not go unnoticed when we tested a collection of bread knives, handing the Kaizen II the Best Design designation. The long, oval-shaped Damascus blade has shallow serrations and a dropped and pointed tip. Not to go unnoticed, the attractive handle’s shape allows you to apply extra pressure without sacrificing your hand’s comfort. Sharp and comfortable, the Kaizen II is an all-around winner.

Tojiro Bread Slicer

$90 $69 at Amazon View on Cutleryandmore.com

The Tojiro Bread Slicer veers from the more common bread knife design and more closely resembles a meat slicer with serrations. It has a long, 10-inch blade that narrows to a point, with blunted, rather than pointed, serrations that glide through bread, fruits, and vegetables. The length and serrations allow the blade to gently cut through bread without taking a toll on the soft crumb. Because of its length and unique serrations, the knife makes crisp cuts, and we named it the Best for Precision following our tests.

Vermicular Musui-Kamado Cast Iron Induction Cooker

$1,175 at Amazon $670 at Williams Sonoma $65 at Food52

You may want to gently warn your most-used kitchen tools to watch their backs. This multi-cooker from Vermicular seems to have an agenda to replace them all. Yes, it’s a rice cooker, but it’s also a slow cooker, a Dutch oven, and can even make no-knead bread. This cooker consists of a musui (enameled cast iron pot) that sits inside an induction-powered kamado, surrounding all sides of the musui with precision heat within one degree of accuracy. A tight-fitting lid with a specially designed divot creates an airtight seal that intensifies steam but allows enough to escape to prevent boil-overs. The result of this combination is clean steaming with little or no extra water necessary.

Toijro Nakiri Knife

$153 at Amazon View on Chefknivesjapan.com

A nakiri knife is a rectangular-shaped knife designed for vegetables. The unique design lends itself to downward motion instead of rocking or slicing. The nakiri from Tojiro stood out from others we tested that ran the gamut of price points. The striking Damascus blade has 37 layers of steel. Sharp and nimble, it glides through hard vegetables like carrots without the need to rock the blade. The handle is comfortable to grip and apply pressure without tiring your hand.

Zero Japan Ceramic Coffee Dripper

$24 at Amazon View on Santokunyc.com

This single-cup coffee dripper makes pour-overs simple. The base design sits perfectly on your cup as the coffee trickles. Two holes in the bottom ensure free-flowing coffee, and “peek holes” in the base allow you to see the coffee in your cup and avoid overfilling and spillage. Zero Japan makes the drippers in three colors: the amusingly-named tomato, brown, and jeans blue.

Vermicular Frying Pan

$45 at Food52 View on Vermicular.us

Centuries of collective experience taught us a hard and fast rule: cast iron is heavy. So, it's with skepticism that we’d approach a 2.3-pound cast iron skillet with any hope of performance — but we shouldn’t, as one editor discovered. The Vermicular Deep Frying Pan is a deep, slope-sided pan with a cool-to-the-touch walnut handle that makes an aesthetic statement sitting on your stove. Looks aside, every food we tested in this pan (eggs, chops, vegetables, and rice) cooked evenly and released wholly, making this as invaluable as any well-seasoned traditional cast iron pan weighing almost triple the Vermicular. You can also purchase a glass lid to complete the set.

Seki Japan Left Handed Nylon Egg Spatula

$18 at Amazon View on Sears.com

Most of us who’ve worked in professional kitchens came to embrace the fish spatula years ago. The wide, tapered head with an upturned angle posterior to the leading edge makes delicate work exceptionally easy. They’re still quite practical for home use — until you encounter a non-stick pan. The spatula’s metal blade will do a number on your expensive coated pans. Sakamoto likes the slotted nylon spatula because it’s “perfect for nonstick or Teflon pants. The spatula is gentle on pans and is slightly flexible, so it is helpful when turning over pancakes, omelets, or other big items.” The metal-reinforced handle provides strength and just enough give for flexibility. As a plus, the Seki spatula is available in left or right-handed configurations.

Global Sai Bread Knife

$190 $152 at Amazon View on Globalcutleryusa.com

Global has built a reputation for high-quality, lightweight knives in its relatively short (compared to many Japanese knife brands) lifespan. Its Sai Bread Knife is no exception. When we tested 20 bread knives, the Sai ranked among the winners as the Best Splurge. It costs slightly more than our other winners, but its ergonomic handle justifies the price. The ultra-thin, hammered steel blade is dimpled, allowing food to fall away, and the sharp teeth make short work of even the crustiest bread. Combining these elements, making thin, uniform slices is a breeze with this knife.

Masamoto VG Santoku Knife

$194 at Amazon View on Korin.com

If a knife design has ascended more quickly in Western kitchens in this century than the Santoku, I cannot name it. The Santoku is a multi-purpose design that lends itself equally well to slicing and chopping. The Masamoto Santoku has an attractive, no-frills design that outperformed the others in its class when we put them to the test. The 7-inch blade and full-tang, bolstered handle make slicing and chopping easy with little hand discomfort.

Seki Japan Long Vegetable Peeler

$24 at Amazon

This thin-bladed peeler from Seki is a perfect tool for peeling fruits and vegetables, of course, but it’s also great for thinly slicing vegetables (think paper-thin cucumber slices), making vegetable ribbons, or cutting nearly see-through onions or scallions. The swiveling blade works independently of the handle, which allows more agility and detail work than a fixed-blade peeler. It functions like a knife would, but without the bulk or width of a blade, and has a plastic safety cover for storage.

Yoshihiro Kasumi Deba Fillet Knife

$275 at Amazon

A Deba is a short, thick knife with a strong blade that cuts through small bones like chicken or removes the head and tail from a fish. Another favorite from our tests, the Yoshihiro Kasuma Deba has a 7-inch high-carbon Shiroko steel blade with a single-bevel edge that’s excellent for cutting through meat and cartilage. The blade’s thickness and durability add to its safety when butchering with wet hands.

Kikuichi Sujihiki Knife

$325 at Amazon View on Kikuichi.net

It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole to find “the best” knife for slicing sushi or sashimi because they all have specific purposes. For a general-purpose, home-use Sujihiki, we tested and recommend this model from Kikuichi. Yes, it’s excellent for slicing fish, but it serves equally well as a carving knife for meat and poultry. Kikuichi started making knives 700 years ago, and we’d be remiss in not including it among our favorite knives based on that history alone.

MoMA Flatware

View on Moma.org

Sori Yanagi was an industrial designer who blended practicality and simplicity with traditional craft. That mindset is reflected in this five-piece flatware set, that combines organic lines with minimalistic sophistication. One of our top picks for flatware, it’s design-driven and functional, yet beautiful in a way that elevates your eating experience.