JAPAN 7 DAYS / Archives

Oct. 8, Sat.

Alarming Japanese "wasabi" wins Ig Nobel Prize

A fire alarm that emits the pungent odor of wasabi has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize. The annual competition honors creative achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
A Japanese team spent seven years developing the alarm system for people with hearing disabilities, who are often oblivious to conventional sound alarms while asleep. The researchers experimented with more than 100 odors before settling on wasabi, a horseradish-type condiment often eaten with sashimi.
Canned ingredients send out a pungent-odor fog when a fire is detected. The wasabi alarm has been used at hotels, and schools for people with hearing disabilities.

Guest: Makoto Imai, lecturer at Shiga University of Medical Science

Other News:
- Artists offer works to raise funds to reopen disaster-hit museums.
- The annual CEATEC Japan electronics fair provides a vision of "smart" communities of the near future.