my japanese friend pick this out for I from the Amazon site . you can spend upward to 250.00 for a rice cooker , but this one work great . the gentleman at the japanese market say that rice cooker do not do a great job with brown rice and he be right , but it cook it good enough for I . White rice , sticky rice come out great . a little brown with some type of rice on the bottom of the pan be normal my friend tell I . in fact some people include myself like it . pay $ 58.00 and free shipping .