People | 20 QUESTIONS Aug 11, 2018
Designer Linda Polgar gives vintage textiles a new lease of life
by Claire Williamson
Longtime Tokyo resident on choosing fabric, fashion designers and surviving Japanese summer.
NEWSWORTHY
Lifestyle Jun 9, 2018
Takaoka crafts a new tourism industry
by Mio Yamada
In the entrance of Nousaku in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, a group of schoolchildren skip by and point excitedly at an eclectic display of hundreds of brightly colored objects. Other visitors, meanwhile, look down in wonder toward the concrete floor, where a huge golden silhouette ...
Business May 25, 2018
U.S. federal court jury orders Samsung to pay Apple $533 million for copying iPhone design
A federal court jury on Thursday ordered Samsung to pay Apple $533 million or copying iPhone design features in a patent case dating back seven years. Jurors tacked on an additional $5 million in damages for a pair of patented functions. The award appeared to ...
Style & Design Mar 25, 2018
Issey Miyake finds its Kyoto home
by Mio Yamada
With its tiered roof, latticed exterior and exposed beams, the new Issey Miyake Kyoto flagship is more than just a store; it's a celebration of one of Kyoto's best-known traditional structures — the machiya.
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Dec 3, 2017
It's time to stop blocking color
by Mio Yamada
Minimalist interiors have been a growing trend for many years now, primarily dominated by a monochromatic palette of white. But who says we need to abandon color to live a de-cluttered life?
People | WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN? Nov 11, 2017
Light designer creates European ambience
by Kathryn Wortley
From a young age, Stuttgart-born Megumi Ito always felt "a bit different" from people in her seaside home of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Both her father and grandfather worked in Europe as architects, and the entire family were great fans of the region's various styles and ...
Lifestyle Aug 13, 2017
Reconstructing the Japanese house
by John L. Tran
After very successful runs in Rome and London, "The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945," an exhibition of maquettes, photographs, plans and drawings, is now in the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. For providing an extensive look at varied and eclectic forms that ...
People | WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN? Jul 15, 2017
Designer Yosuke Ushigome finds solutions to culture shock in English and humor
by J.J. O'Donoghue
How do you solve a geopolitical problem like Kim Jong Un? Containment? Embargoes? Propaganda? Regime change? Synchronized baseball?
People | WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN? May 13, 2017
Designer Yuri Suzuki chases his dreams through sound
by Irma Nunez
As a boy in the 1980s, Yuri Suzuki fell under the spell of video games and his father's record collection. The family home was in bustling Shibuya Ward, near the border with Shinjuku, and the influence of global cultures within its walls was strong. ...
Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Dec 10, 2016
My 4-year-old daughter's eyes light up when she spies something sitting on the work table. Unlike her normal playtime preferences, it is not a rainbow-haired unicorn, felt tip pens or a plastic doll that has caught her attention — it's an industrial looking electric ...
Style & Design Aug 2, 2016
Paul Smith has earned his stripes
by Danielle Demetriou
Colorful and cluttered, the office bursts with paraphernalia, from stacked bicycles and piles of books on designer chairs to an apple-green iMac, a futuristic record player and a red Snoopy phone on the rosewood desk. This is, of course, no ordinary office — it's the ...
Digital | ON: TECH Jun 18, 2016
Bright ideas for bookmarks, toys and apps
by Chiho Komoriya
Kyouei Design's flashy bookmark The tech-savvy may prefer to read e-books from tablets these days, especially since one of the advantages is that the device is often backlit making it easier to see text in dim environments. Printed matter, however, never seems to lose its ...