This is not a photo of a UFO. This is an electric pot for cooking rice.
Since olden times, rice in Japan has been cooked in a cauldron over an open fire with kindling. "Start out at low heat. Then bring to boiling. Even if the baby cries, don't remove the lid until done." Cooking tips like this were once passed from generation to generation, but with the advent of the electric rice cooker, this traditional know-how is no longer needed.
The electric rice cooker made its debut in 1958 and immediately found its way into homes all across Japan. It must have seemed an epoch-making product to housewives at that time.
The rice cooker in the time capsule is a simple model with a bimetallic mechanism on the bottom to regulate the on/off switch. Today, microprocessor-controlled rice cookers capable of high-speed cooking, reheating and numerous other functions have come into the mainstream.