A clever but simple hand-held device promises to bring the benefits of a sauna right into the home

Megumi Ohba had it all. A fulfilling career, significant responsibility, frequent business travel and more. “I took on an assignment in Singapore and also studied while I was there because I thought it would be good for the company,” she says. Ohba was living the dream and pouring her entire being into her career. But something started to go wrong. 

“I really loved my job, and the people I worked with couldn’t have been better,” Ohba explains. “I felt like I was on a roll, but over time I reached a point where I started feeling overwhelmed. Then one day I suddenly couldn’t even make it back to my desk. The whole world just felt dull and gray.”

“One day I suddenly couldn’t even make it back to my desk.
The whole world just felt dull and gray”

Ohba goes on to describe classic symptoms of burnout through the stresses of pushing the envelope at work day in, day out, which high achievers across all walks of life are familiar with, and which not even a neck-deep bath could alleviate. “I didn’t have the energy for a hot bath after work,” she recalls. “Even when I would sit in the bath, my mind would just race in circles of self-doubt while reflecting on the day.” Her situation was compounded by the unique mental pressures women working in Japan face from outmoded customs.

Ohba qualified for a medical leave of absence, but she mustered the energy to deal with her dilemma by changing industries, leveraging her stellar professional track record at a major cement manufacturer to join Panasonic at a time when the company was challenging its employees to help move the multinational into a new era in line with global trends.

Panasonic’s Game Changer Catapult (GCC) initiative is a launchpad for employees passionate about solving societal issues through their own ideas, creating new value and realizing new successes. It seeks an empathetic symbiosis between maker and user across various domains of life including living spaces, childcare and education, health and well-being and more.

This piqued Ohba’s interest and set her to thinking about what type of product could help professionals suffering from the same type of burnout she had experienced, and what would be practical in the context of life in Japan. “I went for a solution that can work in a home bathroom,” Ohba recalls. “All you have to do is connect a special shower head to the shower hose, so there’s no need for time-consuming and expensive installation work.”

“I went for a solution that can work in a home bathroom...
there’s no need for time-consuming and expensive installation work”

The GCC program provided Ohba with access to Panasonic’s vast resources and know-how across personal care, manufacturing and business planning. It also provided mentoring and coaching from experienced entrepreneurs and executives, support that helped Ohba develop a solid business plan and begin navigating the challenges of launching a new product in a competitive market.

Christened FLOWUS, Ohba’s specially designed shower head compresses the incoming hot water into steam. “I am hoping to create a kind of synergy between bathing and a bath, which are not the same thing,” she says. “The difference with FLOWUS is that you can go from thinking in circles to not thinking at all. And in only 15 minutes of relaxing mindlessly in the steam, you come out feeling very refreshed.”

Before FLOWUS, a steam bath was impractical in the home. “I wanted to help women with the same frustrations as me, but FLOWUS is also for stressed-out executives, athletes and young people down in the dumps from the pressures of a digital lifestyle,” Ohba says. 

For centuries, numerous cultures worldwide have recognized how a regular steam bath can bring benefits to the body and mind. These include better metabolism and weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, pain relief, detoxification, skin rejuvenation and improved respiratory function. “Steam warms you up and makes you sweat,” Ohba explains. “It creates a ‘blank time’ where you don’t have to think about anything you don’t want to think about.” FLOWUS makes the steam ready in about three to five minutes, and fifteen minutes is plenty for a really good—and mindless—sweat.

“I wanted to help women with the same frustrations as me, but it is also for stressed-out executives, athletes and young people”

Refreshed in mind, body and spirit thanks to GCC and a renewed sense of purpose, Megumi Ohba now finds herself supervising an expanding FLOWUS project team covering the full range of business development. She also is getting hands-on training of Panasonic’s brand of “monozukuri,” or way of making things, from members of Panasonic’s Research and Manufacturing group, who helped develop the prototype in order to gather and define product requirements and ultimate design specs.

“I definitely wanted to work with designers,” Ohba says. “I also wanted to work with marketers as well as customers.” The process of developing a working FLOWUS prototype and testing it on potential customers, who are everyday people—especially women with the same conditions that she, herself had experienced—introduced her to entirely new dimensions of business.

“Our FLOWUS team mantra is, ‘external beauty comes from inner health,’” Ohba continues. “We have verified the proof of concept internally and are now getting valuable insight from the general public.” Some individuals in the testing pool have become instant believers and ask if they can buy the test model. “That was really my most moving experience so far, and the point where I realized what it means for something to reach people,” she recalls.

FLOWUS fits with Panasonic’s concept of “Live Your Best,” which is centered around the idea of well-being, and which encompasses not just physical health, but also emotional and mental well-being. Panasonic believes that business activities should lead to happiness and the best life possible in today’s changing world.

“We are first focusing on FLOWUS as a solution for stressed out working women, something I know about, but we recognize that the idea of motivating anyone to incorporate a steam bath into their daily routine as a matter of habit is going to be a big challenge,” says Ohba. “But we are confident, since a quick steam bath can free the mind, relax the body, help you get a good night’s sleep and wake up the next morning refreshed and raring to go.”

“Panasonic believes that business activities should lead to happiness and the best life possible in today’s changing world.”

Note: The contents of this article is currently a concept for market research purposes only, and products and services are under development.