Umami, or savoriness, is the fifth element of taste, in addition to sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. Umami is imparted by glutamates, naturally-occuring amino acids found in meat, cheese, mushrooms, broth and stock. With the Umami rice cooker, Zojirushi has created a rice cooker that can highlight the umami flavors in rice. It does this by first slowly heating and soaking the rice, releasing natural sugars into the cooking water. The cooking time is extended with additional steaming, during which time the sugars re-attach themselves to the rice, creating rice that is sweeter and fluffier, with a noticeable umami flavor component.

In addition to the Umami setting, menu choices include White, Brown, Mixed, Sushi, GABA Brown, Rinse-Free, Quick Cooking, and Porridge. All cooking is controlled by Zojirushi's exclusive Micom "fuzzy" logic, which monitors and adjusts the cooking time and temperature automatically to achieve the best results. After cooking is completed, you can choose settings for Keep Warm, Extended Keep Warm and Re-Heating. The capacity is a maximum of 10 cups of uncooked rice.