Many people probably grew up with a range oven. It wasn’t exactly your best friend, but it was certainly the heart of the home. Buying an oven in Japan, however, means navigating a smorgasbord of countertop appliances. We take you through each category highlighting which is the best kind of oven in Japan for toasting, baking, grilling, to choices in combination ovens and specialized appliances such as air fryers.
Table of Contents
Overview of Oven Appliances in Japan
Major life choices used to mean picking out an oven toaster and a microwave. You can still get the basic simple microwave or oven toaster, but there’s so much more you can do and value you can get, if you know the best oven niche for your cooking needs.
Straight up ovens:
- Countertop Baking Oven
Best oven for home chefs in Japan. - The Oven Toaster
Best for toasting and grilling. - Steam Oven Toaster
Best for toast gourmets. - Convection Oven Toaster
Best inexpensive baking oven. - The Microwave Oven
Best for, well, just microwaving. - The Gas Countertop Oven
Best pro oven in Japan.
Combo and specialized ovens:
- Combination Oven Microwave
Best ergonomic choice. - Superheated Steam Oven Range
Most popular oven in Japan. - The Steam Oven Range
Best value added oven. - Steam Convection Oven Toaster
Best steam power alliance. - Infrared Halogen Oven
Best versatile roasting oven. - The Air Fryer
Best fast food oven in Japan.
The Countertop Baking Oven – 卓上オーブン
Best oven for home chefs in Japan.
An all-round good baking oven is preferably one with a convection fan. These cook more evenly and also cook faster. Countertop baking ovens in Japan come in two broad size ranges. Those 20 L and below, and larger ones up to 30 L. The three top contenders for a small baking oven ≤ 20 L are the Iris Ohyama, the Epeios, and the Delonghi Pangourmet.
Although similar to convection toaster ovens, these three ovens are somewhat larger with more specialized functions. The Iris Ohyama is the cheapest priced below 10 000 yen. The Epeios is a fully digital rotisserie oven, while the Delonghi is a specialized bread maker.
Larger ovens ≤ 30 L overlap into the category of steam or superheated steam combo ovens. They are more difficult to use with their complex menus and Japanese only manuals. Two such large baking ovens are the Toshiba Kiln Done / ER-SD3000 and the Sharp / RE-SS10-XW.
Discover the best bakeware for small and large baking ovens.
Oven Toaster – オーブントースター
Best oven for toasting and grilling.
The simple oven toaster has long been a companion in the struggle of everyday survival. Innovations, tweaks, and upgrades have made them easier to clean, faster at toasting, with more choice in design. You can choose from a a standard two slice or a larger four slice toaster.
Some people prefer toasters with just three power levels— top element, bottom element, or both together. It’s more common now for toasters to have a temperature dial setting. These take getting used to, but there is always a temperature guide in the manual.
Most oven toasters are 15 minutes on the dial, a few go up to 30 min, but digital models like the Yamazen and Hirose go up to 60 min. The Delonghi oven toaster is 45 min. If you want to do a bit more with homestyle pizza, look for larger ovens like the 4-slice Aladdin, Hirose, Tiger, or Delonghi. Mesh racks are also nicer for toasting than wire racks.
Japan Steam Oven Toaster – スチームトースター
Best oven for gourmet aficionados.
Steam oven toasters elevate toast making to a gourmet art form. The propitious introduction of steam vapor into the oven maintains a soft and delicate interior contrasted to a perfectly crisp exterior. These ovens can save poor bread from poverty and richer loaves beatified.
There’s only one real contender in this category, the coveted Balmuda. Balmuda is Japanese designer appliance manufacturer. Balmuda, the Toaster has presets for different types of bread as well as simple temperature settings. Iris Oyama has a steam oven toaster with a simple slide-in evaporator dish rather than an inbuilt water reservoir. Steam oven toaster popularity is rising, so you can expect increased choice.
Convection Oven Toaster – コンベクションオーブン
Best inexpensive baking oven in Japan.
These ovens vary a lot in size, capability, and how the convection function works. Some let you to use convection as you like, while with others convection only works with the upper and lower elements combined. A convection oven toaster in Japan can vary in price from below ¥10 000 to around ¥30 000 or more.
The key to choosing a convection oven toaster is how much space you need inside. Some only have one rack position and you still have to keep food about 3 cm from the upper element. These are not so good for baking. For home baking look for two rack positions or more.
If the low temperature is 40℃, the oven can do proofing, but these are rare. From 60℃ it can keep warm and do low temperature slow cooking. At the minimum, you’ll get 30 min on the timer, while most go up to 60 min. Digital models can have easy presets and longer on the timer.
Dedicated Microwave Oven – 電子レンジ
Best option for just microwaving.
Deciding factors for these ovens are often size, price, and user interface design. Ovens up to around ¥5 000 generally have 3 or 4 power levels and a 15 minute timer. As you approach ¥10 000 and above you’re looking at multifunctional microwaves [ 単機能 電子レンジ ] with various presets and up to 30 min on the timer or more.
If you’re in the lower price range, you just need to brush up on basic microwaving. For a typical set up of 200 – 500 – 800 watts, the lowest level is for thawing foods to cook or eat raw [解凍], the middle level for frozen pre-cooked foods [冷凍], and the upper level for fast reheats [あたため].
For multifunctional microwaves, look for presets you need, an intuitive user interface, easy one touch functions, and a user-friendly timer. Additional features on more expensive microwaves can be doneness level「仕上り温度・具合] or add 14 sec or so with a one touch button. For defrosting delicate foods and expensive fish meats, or slow cooking, you may need a 100 W setting.
See the best microwave cookware in Japan
Japan Gas Countertop Oven – 卓上ガスオーブン
Best pro oven choice in Japan.
Rinnai Kitchen is one of the few manufacturers making large, semi-pro countertop gas ovens. The best oven for a private house or apartment is the small RMC-S12E. It also incorporates a microwave with two settings of 200 W and 500 W. The oven measures W490 × D556 × H516 mm. It has a convection fan, a turn table on the bottom, and one baking rack position above.
Combination Oven Microwave – オーブンレンジ
Best ergonomic oven choice in Japan.
These ovens will always have a multi functional microwave with various presets. They’re more complex to use, and some also have a preheat mode. Combo ovens are good value for the space they occupy. They come in a wide range of sizes and capabilities, and some and cost around ¥15 000 at the minimum.
For the most part, an oven microwave is a compromise on the oven half. They’re not the best ovens for roasting, grilling, or baking heavier breads. However, they’re fine for cakes, muffins, bread rolls, stews, baked vegetables, and casseroles. Smaller oven microwaves generally don’t have grills much better than 900 W, but a few go above 1 000 W. Unlike an oven toaster, you can only toast one side at a time.
Superheated Steam Oven – 過熱蒸気オーブン
Most popular oven in Japan.
Superheated steam ovens tend to be combination microwaves, but not always. They generate steam that is heated to well over 100 ℃ which is then used to cook food at rapid speeds. Prices range between ¥20 000 to ¥40 000, but others can reach to over ¥100 000. .
These ovens are a great choice for vegetables, stewed meats, chicken breasts, Chinese dumplings, any seafood, and also spongy cakes. Unlike a microwave, you don’t need to wrap food when using superheated steam. It takes some time getting used to the packed menu options, but they are manageable.
Steam Oven Range – スチームオーブンレンジ
Best value added oven range.
These are also microwave combination ovens. Some wannabe steam ranges only have steam for select microwave presets or just do simple oven steaming in the baking tray. Better steam ovens have steam microwave presets and allow you to do proper steam oven cooking or water grilling such as Sharp Healsio series or Panasonic Bistro.
The convection oven microwave is by far a superior oven, but not so available in Japan. One exception though, is the Sharp RE-WF261 (price link). Steam oven ranges tend to be at least 25L, but both Iris Oyama and Sharp have smaller ones of 18L.
One of the most popular steam ovens is the Sharp Healsio. It has microwave steam functions, steam presets, a water oven, and a water grill. There are a number of models and sizes and they all have pretty good grills of 1 400 W or more.
Convection Steam Oven Toaster – コンベクションスチームオーブン
A marriage of power and elegance.
These ovens add a little more versatility to the convection feature. Convection may be faster, but its dryer heat is not the best for toasting. A steam function gives you the best of both worlds. The choice in this category is limited. Some ovens only allow for steam toasting, while others let you steam cook as you wish.
The Iris Oyama steam convection oven hits the ball out of the court in terms of small compact ovens. The steam function, mainly for toasting, utilizes a porous porcelain biscuit rod. From 35℃ to 95℃ you can slow cook for up to 4 hours. The other contender is the Bruno steam convection oven. With this oven you can run the steam function as you like, but temperatures range from 95℃ to 250℃.
Infrared Halogen Oven – ハロゲンオーブン
Best versatile roasting oven.
The Halogen oven consists of a glass bowl with an infrared cooking lamp on top. They’re a good choice for whole chicken and meat roasts. Vegetables and potatoes can be roasted together at the same time. By placing a rack on the bottom you can also do steaming, rice dishes, and even some simple baking.
The glass cooking bowl does get quite hot, but there is minimal noise from the convection fan to bother your neighbors. Some halogen ovens are pretty small and just good enough for a couple of pieces of fried chicken, or tonkatsu, or you can make a small batch of fries.
Air Fryer – エアーフライヤー
Most popular fast food oven.
The classic air fryer is a type of convection oven or Japanese ‘non fry oven’ with a handy pull out basket into which you pop your food. These are a great choice for making popular foods like potato fries, fried chicken, and tonkatsu pork cutlets with less oil.
The air fryer oven is quite popular in Japan, and like the halogen oven, has an international foodie following. They come in various designs from the small and handy, to large enough to cook for 4 people. They also make desserts like donuts, cinnamon rolls, French bread sticks, sweet pastries, and more.