I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos and shorts from people living in Japan and I noticed that the instructions on food packaging often have instructions for cooking in microwaves up to 600W. As an American this seems odd because all of our food packaging usually has instructions for strengths up to 1200W (or even higher for prepared foods bought at convenience stores), and I know you can get cheaper microwaves with strengths around 800W here but most homes/hotels I've ever been in with a microwave have ones that are 1000W-1200W.
I recognize that stronger microwaves probably take up more space due to the more powerful electronics inside, but are residential microwaves usually 600W or less in Japan? Here's an example video I just watching this morning: Exploring Japan’s Wild Frozen Food Store 🍜 🍈 🍣.
Sidenote: I really wish we had something like "@FROZEN" in the US. Now granted the frozen foods section of our hypermarkets are probably just as big as an entire "@FROZEN" store location but the variety apparent in the video linked above is really quire impressive – especially the large selection of premium foods.
by Nimmeron
9 comments
The microwaves have a knob/buttons to set the wattage
Most home microwaves are set to 600 W to start with, but they can go down to 500, or up. I forgot what is the maximum but usually not as high as 1200
Every microwave I’ve had in Japan has an adjustable setting. While 600W is the default you can just dial it to a higher setting (or lower).
I think the reason that Japan defaults to 600W is that it is more energy efficient, and so a lot of microwaveable foods in Japan are designed with 600W reheating in mind in terms of moisture content, heating through, etc.
As a result, even if you can crank the microwave up to 1200W it might be better to go with 600W.
I’ve seen some packaging instructions going up to 1500W, so it really depends.
Typical microwave at home is 600W with a bit of leeway up and down.
However konbini have microwaves with 1500W so heat your food ultra quickly, but they aren’t consumer-type microwaves
Mine had 500, 600, 800W setting, and having different W choices is standard.
I have a larger more expensive microwave-and-oven-in-one, and it has 200w (for defrosting), 500w, 600w, and 1000w settings. The super basic one I had when I got my very first apartment after finishing school was 500w only.
I think 500 and 600 are considered the “basic” strength. A cheap microwave with only one setting is going to be one of those, so it’s what’s on the food packaging. But in reality I think a lot of people do have adjustable ones.
If you don’t know how to operate your microwave, type the model number into ChatGPT and it will tell you exactly how to do whatever you need.
I discovered a whole bunch of new stuff on mine that way
My combo microwave/oven goes up to 1200W but defaults to 600W and I usually reheat things at 500W.
Reheating food at lower wattage takes more time, but results in more even heating, especially when you aren’t using a turntable. Most Japanese microwaves don’t have a turntable because they also function as a convection oven and broiler.
I think this is why everything recommends a lower wattage. It usually makes for a better result.