Sanyo Electric Co.'s Gopan, a machine that bakes bread from rice, has been such a smash hit since its November debut that the manufacturer has had to stop taking orders.
The Gopan represents seven years of cross-division effort by Sanyo engineers. The company said the world's first household cooker that makes bread from rice will hopefully help curb Japan's long-declining rice consumption and raise the nation's food self-sufficiency, the worst among major industrialized countries.
"It tastes so good. If I didn't know it was made from rice, I wouldn't have guessed," said Sumiko Takeuchi, who tried Gopan-made bread at a tasting event in Tokyo.