About

Kako US is an editorial review site for Japanese home and kitchen goods available in the United States. We are based in Portland, Oregon, and founded in 2019 by editor-in-chief Miranda Cole. Our team of three editors—Miranda Cole, Daniel Park, and Aiko Tanaka—orders every product at retail and tests it hands-on in our Southeast Portland test kitchen. We do not accept free samples for review. We publish scores on a five-point scale and retest every 18 months. Our corrections policy is to fix errors promptly and note the change. We are funded by affiliate commissions from links on our site. Our privacy policy explains how we handle data. Our terms of use govern your use of the site.

Our testing SOP begins with ordering at least two units from different retailers. We log packaging condition, unboxing time, and first impressions. In the test kitchen, we run product-specific tests: for knives, we perform 100 cuts on a standard board and measure edge retention; for ceramics, we test thermal shock and chip resistance; for appliances, we measure cooking time, temperature variance, and energy consumption. Each product is scored on a five-point scale: 5 excellent, 4 good, 3 adequate, 2 poor, 1 very poor. Hands-on scores use the full 1 to 5 scale, with the evidence and limits explained.

Reading our coverage

Our homeware coverage connects tableware materials, ceramic care and appliance cooking performance with the practical demands of an American kitchen.