Vacuum Cleaners Currently on the Japanese Market

[eurekaprince]

Thought it would be fun to provide some links to webpages of major companies which are selling vacs in Japan now! I don't read Japanese, but it was not hard to "shoot in the dark" a bit and find the vacuum sections of each company's website. Click on any pictures and links and enjoy looking at the diagrams and pictures. I'll put one link in each of the upcoming posts.

So here we go!

First: Panasonic

http://panasonic.jp/soji/

 

[eurekaprince]

Next...

Panasonic's Sanyo Division:

http://products.jp.sanyo.com/cleaner/

 

[eurekaprince]

Next....

Toshiba

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/living/cleaners/index_j.htm

 

[eurekaprince]

Next....

Electrolux in Japan!

http://www.electrolux.co.jp/node37.aspx?categoryid=14700

 

[eurekaprince]

Finally...

Dyson in Japan!!!

http://www.dyson.co.jp/store/hmc.asp

 

[portable]

<span style="font-family: tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thanks, Brian - fascinating.</span>

 

[eurekaprince]

You're welcome John! I should try to do this for some other countries like Brazil and Korea and India....I'll leave Europe and Australia for our friends living there.

 

[petek]

Brian I haven't been downtown TO for a couple of years.. do you ever see any of those little Japanese vacs in some of those camera/electronics stores along Yonge? I remember seeing one or two last time

 

[encorevacuums]

I find it strange that you never really see uprights being sold in as much as we use them here in the USA.

 

[super-sweeper]

wow

japanesse vacs look weird...

 

[trebor]

The lack of uprights in Japan...

is not so surprising given that their living quarters are so much smaller. The preference for carpet is what spurred the development of the upright in this country. Other than the UK and Canada no other countries have such a strong preference for carpet. As the desire for hard surface floors in the US has increased so have the offerings of canisters in the market here.

Smaller homes, smaller multi-purpose spaces, less storage, and less thick wall-to-wall carpet, sounds like a program for canisters for me.

 

[eurekaprince]

Hey there Pete,

You know...I avoid going to downtown as much as possible (even for Pride!!!) because I find the city has become so dirty and littered with posters every where. I think I may end up returning to the 'burbs as soon as I can! So I can't say that I have seen any of the Japanese vacs recently.

Since Japan runs on 100 volts, their vacs would work okay in North America....so who knows? There might be some Korean electronics store up in Markham selling Toshiba canisters for all we know!!!

I'll keep an eye out for these. One thing is for sure...all these Japanese corporations have large corporate offices in Toronto's suburbs. If any of us ever wanted a Panasonic or Sanyo vac made in Japan, all we would need to do is contact the head office and put in an order with a sales rep!

 

[eurekaprince]

Michael - Robert is correct when he says that most Japanese homes do not have wall-to-wall plush carpeting. So uprights with revolving brush rolls are really overkill for most Japanese homes. I lived in Tokyo for a while, and indeed, most apartments had beautiful hardwood floors (though mine had western style carpeting!)

I am sure that Electrolux must sell their Sanitaire line in Japan because a there are many hotels and restaurants and offices with carpeting. I have not been able to find the Sanitaire link on the Electrolux Japan website though.

Another interesting feature about Japanese apartments is that most have at least one room where the floor is covered in a straw mat-like material. This room is called the Tatami Room. The carpet nozzles of Japanese canister vacs are often designed to be able to clean these mats well - I think that is why you see a lot of lightweight turbo carpet nozzles with all the canisters and these clean the tatami mat floor coverings very well.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Panasonic bagless option with a tissue

Look at this.

There is an option to use a paper bag or the dust cassette. The dust cassette allows the user to place a tissue within the cassette, to catch the dislodged dust and dispose of cleanly.

http://products.jp.sanyo.com/cleaner/xwm/feature3/

 

[eurekaprince]

Hey Calum, that is soooo cool! Wonder how Panasonic divides up the vacuum market between their Panasonic brandname and their newly acquired Sanyo division...hmmm...

 

[eurekaprince]

Here's another interesting vac from National Panasonic..

http://en.item.rakuten.com/okadadenki/mc-sa10w-ck/

 

[rolls_rapide]

I was laughing at the translation of Japanese to English. It never quite works.

Anyway, that machine seems to have a floor head that imparts ions onto the floor, presumably to pick up more dust, I imagine, by neutralising static cling.

The Dyson method of neutralising static cling, is to use carbonfibre bristles.

 

[portable]

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: small;">Interesting translation:</span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: small;"> </span>


<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: small;">Dent detection sensor
Highly sensitive infrared sensors mounted on hose sections to detect approximately 70μm fine house dust, hand lamps and inform the extension pipe. Depending on the power to control the amount of rubbish, garbage power have shiny red, and will clean off and powered down.

<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Uh-huh</span></span>