Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Feb 17, 2020
Fresh ideas for old-school crafts
by Mio Yamada
As many of Japan's traditional crafts and industries hope to adapt to survive, more young designers are offering their creative help
People | 20 QUESTIONS Feb 15, 2020
Alvin Cheung: Coffee and keyboards — a perfect combo
by Claire Williamson and Mio Yamada
Alvin Cheung talks about the caffeine-charged world of entrepreneurism, design and "coffee terroir."
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Jan 20, 2020
by Mio Yamada
From horizontal vases to panty-clad glasses, Japan's handmade market can offer some extraordinary gift ideas for Valentine's Day.
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Dec 30, 2019
Waste not want not in Japanese design
by Mio Yamada
The limitations of recycling and repurposing materials frees the imagination for unusual, amusing and clever design in Japan.
Style & Design | 2019 in Review Dec 18, 2019
Future design in Japan: Recycle, upcycle and reinvent
by Mio Yamada
The focus on traditional artisanship is still strong, as is the global obsession with minimalism, but what about sustainability and ethical consumption?
People | 20 QUESTIONS Sep 21, 2019
Maurice Eric Zacher: Designs on Japan
by Mio Yamada
Japanologist and product designer Zacher on Japanese design, gadgets and university scholarships.
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Apr 28, 2019
by Mio Yamada
Now that the flurry of activity that surrounds the annual Salone del Mobile has died down, this month's On: Design takes a look at a few of the interiors fair's Japanese prizewinning ideas and new product debuts.
Style & Design Feb 12, 2019
Plastic fantastic: Examining the obsession over Japan's soft vinyl toys
by Dan Orlowitz
It's a cold afternoon in mid-January and, inside a factory operated by Maruyama Toys in a quiet residential area in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward, Cory Privitera is making sofubi (soft vinyl toys). In a cramped workspace surrounded by machinery and long sinks, the 33-year-old begins by ...
Art Dec 12, 2018
In 2018, art came via many anniversaries in Japan
by John L. Tran
This year saw a lot of anniversaries in Japan. It was 1868 when Crown Prince Mutsuhito became the Emperor Meiji, the official policy of national isolation ended and the country was set on a course to become a modern industrialized nation-state. This birthday seems ...
Style & Design Dec 12, 2018
Shared spaces, locally produced goods and everyday objects
by Mio Yamada
Making physical connections with people, whether via large-scale events and spaces or design concepts, and a continued celebration of traditional crafts, appeared to be a key direction for design in Japan this year. "2018 was the year Japan embraced the idea of 'shared space' — ...
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.
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 ...