Rice is definitely a staple of the Japanese diet, so it's no surprise that a rice cooker is often thought of as a crucial appliance for many homes. Recently, however, we've seen some clever takes on the standard device, including rice cookers that let you cook up curry and rice at the same time, as well as personal bento sized rice cookers for just the right serving.

Japanese maker Iris Ohyama is now releasing a new "Healthy Support" rice cooker that aims to help those with health concerns, particularly those who want to cut back on their sugar intake as the rice cooker is capable of reducing sugar from rice servings by 20%.

Iris Ohyama claims the rice cooker can cut up to 20% of the sugar served from a bowl of rice prepared in a normal rice cooker by by retaining more water. The company estimates that if you eat three 150 gram cups of rice a day for a year using the 20% cut mode, you can eliminate 273 cups of sugar from your diet in one year. The rice cooker also comes with a 10% sugar cut mode for those that don't want to adjust the flavor of their rice drastically.

The cooker also offers a "healthy menu of 9 types", meaning it can prepare up to 9 different types of rice and rice based dishes--including brown rice, barley rice, fiber-loaded superfood mochi mugi rice, and Okowa, a Japanese dish of glutinous rice loaded with meat and vegetables

The sugar-saving rice cooker is slated to be available from electronics stores and from order from Iris Ohyama in Japan starting August 8th, priced at 16,800 yen.