JAPAN: PC2B, A COMPANY BASED IN TODA RUN BY A FORMER SONY ENGINEER, HAS INVENTED AIR CONDITIONED SHIRTS TO COMBAT THE HOT JAPANESE SUMMER

Record ID: 451704

  • Title: JAPAN: PC2B, A COMPANY BASED IN TODA RUN BY A FORMER SONY ENGINEER, HAS INVENTED AIR CONDITIONED SHIRTS TO COMBAT THE HOT JAPANESE SUMMER
  • Date: 11th June 2004
  • Summary: (L!2) TOKYO, JAPAN (FILE) (REUTERS) LAS: SUN SHINING BRIGHTLY INTO CAMERA MV: MAN WALKING WITH A NEWSPAPER OVER HIS HEAD MLV: MAN EATING ICE CREAM GV: PEOPLE WALKING BUSY DOWN STREET MLV: MAN GIVING OUT PAPER FANS TO PASSING WOMEN
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TODA AND TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAAS328N7DRJ5FFY23BGO62VACO
  • Story Text: Feeling the heat of summer? Try Japan's latest hit to stay cool : the air-conditioned shirt! Dressing lightly, eating ice cream and fanning oneself are some of the classical ways of coping with summer heat.
    But this summer, Japanese people will have a new option -- the air-conditioned shirt.
    PC2B, a Japanese company run by a former Sony Corp engineer, has invented a range of shirts and jackets with built-in fans to keep the wearer cool.
    "This garment puts large amounts of air between the body of the wearer and the garment and that evaporates the perspiration. As a result it cools the body and there is no worry that he wearer becomes too cold because the amount of perspiration is controlled by the brain. This is a cooling system which is ideal for humans," Hiroshi Ichigaya, president of PC2B, or Physiological Cooler Controlled By Brain.
    Ichigaya and his five employees experimented for years before coming up with a lightweight, quiet but sturdy fan which could be sewn onto fabrics.
    The current fans operate on four batteries. When it is turned on, the fans create wind within the clothes so that they puff out and enable wearers to keep cool for nearly 10 hours.
    "This is a cooling system which is ideal for humans,"
    Ichigaya said.
    PC2B started sales of its garments on Thursday (June 10) via the Internet. Apart from the air conditioned shirt, there are two types of jackets, one with and the other without a hood. All weigh 320 grammes and cost 9,900 yen (90.59 U.S. dollars).
    Experiments are still going on to create a better fan and new garment samples undergo tests in a heated room to see if they work.
    People who have tried the air-conditioned jackets say they work wonders.
    "Oh! It's cool, it's really cool," said Yumiko Suzuki, a 28-year-old rower who just finished practice, when she tried on the jacket.
    But some women were more concerned about the aesthetics of the garments than practicality.
    "It's funny and I look really fat," Shinobu Kitamoto, 27, who also just finished rowing.
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