Japanese Decoded: Using An Air Conditioner
How To Tackle The Japanese Air Conditioning
It's getting hot in there... Summer is on its way and it's time to face the much dreaded Japanese remote of your A/C—with its way too many options. From cooling to dehumidifying, today we master them all.
There is no shame in trying all the buttons of your air conditioner remote, hoping it will get to the result you are expecting—we have been there. For those of us who don’t read all the kanji of our A/C (エアコン, eakon), we gathered a Japanese cheat sheet that will allow you to control the temperature and humidity of your room without even thinking about it.
Temperature control
There is plenty of options on most Japanese air conditioners but the basics will always be temperature control! When selecting the heating or cooling mode, just hit the arrow buttons to increase or decrease desired temperature.
| Japanese | Rōmaji | English |
| 温度 | ondō | Temperature |
| 暖房 | danbō | Heating/warm |
| 冷房 | reibō | Cooling/cold |
Mastering the modes of your A/C
Reducing your air conditioner to only temperature control would be a shame—as it’s not only temperatures that make Japanese summer a hot season, the high humidity is also to blame and there is a button for that on your dear remote.
| Japanese | Rōmaji | English |
| 切替/運転切替 | kirikae/unten kirikae | On/Change operating mode |
| 運転切換 | unten kirikae | Change operating mode (using another kanji) |
| 自動 | jidō | Automatic—when you want to leave it to AI! |
| 省エネ | shōene | Energy saving |
| ドライ | dorai | Dry (cool) air |
| 送風 | sōfū | Ventilate |
| 除湿 | joshitsu | Dehumidify |
| 空清/空気清浄 | kūsei/kūki seijō | Clean/filter air |
| 気流 | kiryū | Take in outside air |
| フルパワー | furu pawaa | Full Power |
| 停止 | teishi | Off |
When you need to vent
Not everyone is a big fan of the “full power” cold wind blast. If that gives you horrendous headaches, try playing with wind settings.
| Japanese | Rōmaji | English |
| 風量 | fūryō | Wind speed |
| 弱 | yowa | Gentle/weak |
| 強 | tsuyo | Strong |
| 風向 | fūkō | Airflow direction |
You should now be armed against all the kanji on your remote, if your air conditioner is not the only appliance to scare you when it comes to kanji, we also gathered some useful words to check when using general appliances!
