Daiso, a major 100-yen shop that handles a wide range of products from daily necessities to leisure goods. We conducted a shopping survey at the "Nagoya Sakae Skyll Store," which boasts a lineup of approximately 35,000 items.

As a result, we found various shopping situations, from heatstroke prevention goods for summer to unexpected ways to use disaster prevention goods.

Heatstroke prevention goods and leisure goods are popular! Mini fans released this year are also popular

At this time of year, when many places are recording midsummer days and extremely hot days, many customers were picking up heatstroke prevention goods.
Best-selling items include cooling/cooling items and fashion items such as arm covers. Among them, mini fans were particularly popular.

New products this year include models with a display that shows the battery level and wind speed level at a glance, and models equipped with a mist function. The double effect of wind and mist is designed to make you feel cooler.

An elderly woman at the store said that she has been coming to Daiso for many years and checks summer products every year. What she particularly loves is...

(Customer)
"A scarf to prevent sunburn on my neck. This type is good. It's not stuffy and feels great on my skin. It's definitely good, and it's 100 yen. It's definitely cheap."

The scarf, available in three colors, is made of soft polyester material. It's a long, thin size that's easy to wrap around the neck, making it a classic popular product. The woman already has two, but she bought another one this time.

In addition, there is a wide selection of leisure goods for camping and hiking. Leisure sheets are available in a wide variety of colors and patterns, and are popular.

Aluminum blankets for disaster prevention used for beer brewing!?

In the disaster prevention goods section, there was a product that a man was buying in bulk.

(Mr. Ariyu Sugimoto, representative of Dragon Brewing)
"An aluminum blanket. It's usually for disaster prevention, but I'm using it for something else. I wanted a thin aluminum sheet to make something myself."

Later, to interview him about its use, we visited Mr. Sugimoto's home in Higashi Ward, Nagoya City.
The single-family house had more of a workshop atmosphere than a typical home. What was being made there was...

(Mr. Ariyu Sugimoto, representative of Dragon Brewing)
"I'm making beer. I renovated a former photo studio company dormitory into a brewery."

Mr. Sugimoto and his colleagues established a craft beer company and started brewing in August 2025. The members are active teachers at a private junior and senior high school for boys in Higashi Ward, Nagoya City.

Why did they start making beer?

(Mr. Ariyu Sugimoto, representative of Dragon Brewing)
"Three science teachers got together, and at first we talked about starting a business in education. At that time, I had the opportunity to go to Belgium and learned about fruit beer, and thought, 'That's interesting.'"

After that, they participated in a contest where students and working adults competed with business ideas for beer brewing, and won. With the desire to stimulate and educate students through manufacturing, Mr. Sugimoto himself obtained a brewing license and started the business.

Aluminum sheets are used as insulation in the aging room!

What Mr. Sugimoto and his team make is fruit beer that uses no sweeteners or flavorings, but instead uses fruits and fruit juices to create flavor. Their idea of processing off-spec fruits and seeds and peels that would normally be discarded so that they can be used as raw materials was highly praised in the contest.

This idea of "making use of things in a different way" is also applied to the construction of the brewery.

(Mr. Ariyu Sugimoto, representative of Dragon Brewing)
"Fermenter. It was originally a freezer. We remodeled it with wooden boards and insulation."

They are also devising and maintaining equipment, such as converting a freezer into a fermenter.

This is the first summer since they started their business. The aluminum blankets purchased at "Daiso" were used for equipment essential for beer making.

(Mr. Ariyu Sugimoto, representative of Dragon Brewing)
"The room where the beer is aged. A refrigerator is too cold, and the room temperature in summer is too hot. It's like a room with air conditioning."

Since temperature changes affect the taste of beer, it is important to maintain a constant temperature in the aging room. By attaching aluminum blankets over the insulation, they enhance the heat retention and insulation effects, making it easier to stabilize the temperature.

Students are also more interested in the business story than in class, and Mr. Sugimoto said he hopes to "become a bridge between students and society."

From CBC TV "Chant!" broadcast on May 28, 2026