There is a secret pleasure in ripping perforated paper. So much in fact that according to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, companies should consider adding more perforations to packaging just to give buyers additional opportunities.

In this video, Dean Mari Kondo (Doshisha Business School, Global MBA ), Professor Tim Craig and Professor Morinosuke Kawaguchi discuss Japanese Pop Culture and Innovation. This video was shot at Doshisha Business School Global MBA Program.

The article was published by the New York Times and British The Guardian, among others.

Quote:

“Skills related to production, like making moulds, are something that companies obtained after years of trial and error,” said Morinosuke Kawaguchi, associate director at management consultancy Arthur D Little in Tokyo.

For example, the slightest tweak to a mould could lead to mass production of faulty items, said Kawaguchi, himself a former Hitachi Ltd engineer who used to make household appliances.

“This exodus of Japanese engineers will raise the quality of products made by Chinese companies and allow them to produce efficiently,” he added.

The article was translated into various languages including Chinese and Vietnamese.

In Japan, as is the case so often, technology is applied with a totally different end in mind. It is unknown to most, for example, that Akio Morita, co-founder of SONY, designed the legendary WALKMAN in times of the portable “ghetto blaster”. The aim was so that people could enjoy music outdoors without bothering other people (instead of BEING bothered by other people or noises). Ironically, the WALKMAN became a sales hit around the world because they were able to disconnect from the outside world on the go. Morita's original purpose never really surfaced.

Years later, Japanese construction and engineering company TODA developed an outward noise control system called TANC. TANC looks like a huge microphone and speakers that is attached to the nozzle of heavy construction vehicles such as excavators. The goal is to cancel the sound waves from the vehicles as much as possible by sending countering waves.

Morinosuke Kawaguchi stresses this difference in mentality that is able to come up with new solutions in applying technology. As Japanese electronics companies are starting to lose their competitive edge and innovative power, SONY might be well advised to return to the roots of its success and remember where innovation really came from during its peak time. Japanese can and should not try and copy the American approach to innovation (or the approach of any other culture, for that matter) as it will never really manage to create unique products that way.

Remember the periodic table and what it meant to memorize dry information? To the human brain it is far more difficult to remember information that is not linked to more, let's say, organic and placative concepts. People with excellent memory often develop techniques to connect information with a story or emotion. Our brain loves metaphors.

Using anime characters is a fun way to spice up a boring sheet of information. It uses comics - the idea of a person reduced to a placative picture that the brain can even more easily absorb than a that of a real person - to give each element a face and associate the girls' personalitites with the characteristics of each element. If you search the internet for an anime periodic table you will find many versions done by fans, and there is even a book that manages to get the hardboiled sciencific information across much easier. The book was written by Miyuki Mitsuda, a chemistry teacher at Tokyo's Musashi Institute of Technology.

As a designer or engineer, if you can't make things easier, think of ways of how to make them more easily absorbable. There is no way students can avoid memorizing the periodic table. But someone came up with the idea to make it easier, more fun and with a good chance that the information becomes long-term rather than short-term knowledge.

The trend which is now mainstream actually started decades ago and in Japan it was very much inspired by subculture. Japanese car makers Honda and Nissan were the first to enter this field. Nissan launched a series in the 90s inspired by Japanese shoujo manga (girls' manga) eyes and makeup ideals.

Honda developed the AFS (adaptive front lighting system) that can be traced back to the robot Zack from the famous Gundam anime series and his swinging eye. The AFS was adopted by other automobile manufacturers. In this way, subculture showed hints for product design and innovation that only years later became a mainstream hit.

German automobile manufacturer BMW ventured into this territory in the early 2000s together with its car supplier Hella. It gave birth to the E36 with its Corona ring front lights, better known as Angel Eyes. By now, Angel Eye upgrade sets are available for all major car brands, and they enable car owners to install Angel Eyes into their cars.

When it comes to the definition of consumables products with no emotional attachment worth to be designed into, then it would probably be toilet paper. Toilet paper is the ultimate product to be wasted. And still, someone in Japan took the time and effort to write the message “Arigatou Gozaimasu” or “Thank you” onto the cardboard roll. Reading the message evokes both Mottainai and Kawaisou feelings, not least because of the humanization element. The little paper roll has done its deed and will be disposed of, but not before saying thank you for using it. To a culture that is more emotional than rational, and more child-like than adult, this message holds a certain appeal.

While toilet paper should certainly not be preserved, it is that exaggeration of the sense of waste that can be applied to products. Kawaisou is rather suited for durables as it will make it harder to throw Kawaisou products away. For consumption products such as food it just can't be helped. But consumption could be encouraged to be more sustainable in any case.

There is another way in product design that neither touches the tool nor the luxury approach. To spot this we need to shift attention away from user-centrism for a moment. The example Morinosuke Kawaguchi used in one of his DIME articles was the horse in the popular anime “Fist of the North Star” (In Japanese Hokuto no Ken). This horse named Kokuougou, a giant and smart black stallion that, instead of serving either the hero or the evil antagonist, chooses which "master" to serve. As opposed to being subservient, it has a mind of its own. It will not recognize the owner, but the owner's capability or condition. If the capability is not met, then the horse will not render its impressive services.

The brand value of the Kokuougou product is that the owner feels honored to be accepted by it. This goes beyond mere ID recognition. Something has to be done to “earn” the product's effects and affection. The psychological effect results in higher value on both sides.

If the Kokuougo principle was to be transfered to today's vehicles for example, we see that cars, no matter the branding strategy, always remain a tool to the owner. According to Kawaguchi, to build premium uniqueness, the element of eligibility is important to make the user feel special. It is the designer's task to set the condition and determine when the customer becomes eligible.

The rise of the iPhone and other high tech smartphones has been a dilemma to them. The flat, rational, perfect exterior of these smartphones is not as easily alterable as had been the case with the old Japanese cell phones. Women can not even attach a keychain - where would they attach it to? The result is an overwhelmingly large amount of smartphone jackets. But despite that huge assortment, it is not the same as decorating your own cell phone. It's just attaching one finished product to another finished product. It's like a creative potential just vanished by designer's belief that their finished product was perfection. As much as product designers might certainly cringe at the thought of their product being cluttered by uber-kawaiiness, the truth is that few Japanese women will replace their beloved dekokeitai if they can possibly avoid it.

Morinosuke Kawaguchi argues that products with an appealing mission to end consumers should not be finished when they hit the stores. Love for the product, and loyalty to a product, lies in your personal touches and interaction with it. According to him, the winner in business will be the one who designs the system, but that does not apply the final touches to the product. While true profitability lies in the system, user-finishable is just the natural consquence of customization.

The AR missile app uses augmented reality to “release daily stress”, as the developer puts it. What it actually does is turning the user's life into an action movie, one of the increasing demands in matured markets. See dramatized life.

One of the big innovation triggers are based on the fact that we basically turn life into stage play. We augment the daily life with theatrical, semi-fictional elements. This innovation approach caters to the increasingly narcissistic demand, and this mentality is what Japan has aplenty. Japanese products excel at putting people at the centre of the universe and enable them to become conductors to the soundtrack of their lives using all sorts of dramatizing, exalting elements. The maid cafés of Akihabara to giant stadium screens or music played in the moment of personal victory are just examples to the demand to be surrounded by theatre. In short, life should be bigger than life.

One particular example is the Japanese app AR Missile. This augmented reality app allows you to shoot virtual missiles into the real world - or at least the real world on your iPad screen. You can blow up buildings or even your boss. How much more empowered or dramatized can life be?

As theatre overemphasized, it creates an emotion that people want to replicate. Similar to watching you favorite movie, we might want to to replay stages in our lifes through triggers of e.g. sound, touch or smell. But more than catering to the demand for dramatization, personal experience itself turns into bits and bytes. According to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, this hints at business models of the future.

People in Japan recognize and pay attention to shyness much more than in most other cultures, and they can relate to how products that ease the sense of embarrassment would be greatly appreciated. While the direct way to ease embarassment is to mask it or cover it up, Morinosuke Kawaguchi thinks that it is the outsourcing of the embarrassment that will have the biggest impact. In that sense, more software-oriented innovation will assist the shy. The idea is that products can spot awkward moments by themselves and react accordingly to ease the tension. Now think back to the elevator example. Wouldn't it be great if our smartphone would connect us to the other persons if certain conditions were met. It would be the smartphone's responsibility to make the introduction so that both parties will be relieved of taking the first step. It could be something as trivial as using the smartphone's access to weather information and having it make a comment such as “Today's weather is really hot, isn't it?”. There you go; icebreaker. Or think of the business meeting where your boss keeps talking and nobody dares to interrupt him? Wouldn't it be great if an artifact was responsible for interrupting him rather than you or one of your colleagues?

Morinosuke Kawaguchi has developed a methodology to assess moments of shyness that he uses in his consulting work and in his lectures. The goal is to categorize those instances of shyness and derive ways to ease the tension in those moments. This serves as the basis to develop assisting products and services. And embarassment, no matter the culture, is something all people will want to avoid.

This book,

“The Periodic Table: Learning Basic Chemistry through Moe” by Miyuki Mitsuda, is a perfect way for studying the periodic table in a fun way. Each element has its own girl that reflects the element's properties in design and characterization. Humanization makes it easier for the brain to relate to abstract concepts, something to remember when applying the humanization principle. Fields of application range from education, branding, attachment-building to faster signal recognition. See also this post about traffic harmonization where humanization was applied.

The automaton by Toshiba’s founder Hisashige Tanaka is really something, considering that it was built in 1820. A fully mechanical machine that is able to draw four complex Chinese characters (kanji) thanks to a sophisticated mechanism and then give a brief nod of satisfaction once the writing is completed. The mechanism itself is enough to be impressive. The achievement resides in writing those beautiful characters, right? Right?

According to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, the true genius of Tanaka lies elsewhere. After a closer look at the mechanism it becomes apparent that out of the total of 12 strings of the automaton, only 3 (!) are used to actually draw the characters. The other 9 are used for what seems to be a minor detail in the entire process: the nod of satisfaction of a job well done.

In this attention to detail, Tanaka did not only master the engineer’s part of how to make an automaton that was able to neatly draw four Chinese characters. He also added the emotional gesture that makes the automaton much more akin to a miniature human than a mechanical device.

Tanaka was an egineer and designer at the same time. He knew how to build an automaton, but also envisioned what it should perform on the functional as well as emotional level. In this respect, the function of writing Chinese characters is the first glance function, but it would have been an incomplete, reptitive and machine-like design without the human gesture.

As machines take over the manufacturing process, the human's role is more and more reduced to that of the designer. It is the “What to make” that is required today, says Kawaguchi.

These are two depictions of Saraswati, an Indian goddess associated with knowledge, flow and arts. In Japan she is known as Benzaiten (弁才天/弁財天).

The anime figure of Saraswati was donated to the Japanese temple Ryo-ho-ji (了法寺), and monk Shoko Nakazato had it displayed outside the building inside a glass case.

As a religious figure it comes as no surprise that high culture depiction of her is prominent. But would you take the anime version of Saraswati seriously in this shape? To some this figure must even feel superficial, tasteless, and almost blasphemous. Is the entity you worship really supposed to look like that?

Before you make a judgment, think about the real meaning.

What is the actual function of depicting Saraswati? Both representations try to visualize and personify something that cannot be seen. Gods are abstract concepts, and the way to relate to them is through metaphors, associations and humanization. But both representations have the same message: pray to the god. Through which version can young Japanese relate more easily to Saraswati, which one is closer to them?

In innovation, it's not about your taste (sad, but true). According to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, the key is to look beyond the surface, to find out the purpose of the product and include how to bring the purpose to your customers in an appealing way.

Look at industrialized nations from the dimensions of masculine and feminine, juvenile and adult. Morinosuke Kawaguchi applies these dimensions to segment mentalities, values, technologies and products, and in his lectures he shows how consumers, automobiles, vacuum cleaners and even logos can be studied using his matrix.

Within these parameters Japan's strength lies in the girly, emotional, and childish. The diametrical opposite is the rational, adult male. This is not to say that one quadrant is better than the other, or that Japan doesn't have products that match the tastes of the adult, rational male. But to compete with the Nordic mentality, Japanese are bound to lose - or spend too much resource on keeping up. According to Kawaguchi, a country may be advised to focus on making products that don't stray too far away from its home turf. The best example of Japan's power of manufacturing is the Japanese toilet, which symbolizes the power of manufacturing based on true Japanese sensibilities. To learn more about this, please watch Morinosuke Kawaguchi's TEDxTokyo Toilet Talk: here.

You can even apply Morinosuke Kawaguchi's chart to find your own strength, your target audience and your product's appeal.

The elastic softness of this cat paw replica stimulates endless rubbing. It just feels good to the finger. See Morinosuke Kawaguchi's advice on irresistibility and other infinite series products.

According to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, this stapler adds a bit of spice to office life. To refill, the magazine snaps open in the front when you push the rear button, replicating the procedure of loading a gun. Especially the male office worker can appreciate this little detail to an otherwise perfectly normal and functional stapler.

This baby toy consists of a soft, cotton surface and produces a crackling sound similar to a newspaper, only louder. Touch and sound calm the baby and besides, babies might be happy to see that they share doing something their parents do when they read the paper on a Sunday morning.

One of the advices Morinosuke Kawaguchi gives is that babies should be observed closely, as their feedback is untainted and most basic. The toy industry has very advanced research on the behavior of babies and toddlers, but much of the insight is later discarded when designing products for adults - even though the essence of what appeals to a child would still appeal to adults.

Curry is extremely popular in Japan, and many a visitor to Japan carries tons of mixes home (Glico and S&B being just two brands). Your Asian foodstore might carry it. See Kawaguchi's post about the degree of convenience to learn more about the hidden hint.

Both authors have created characters that everyone in Japan knows about: Mizuki's Medama Oyaji from the famous manga GeGeGe no Kitaro and Tezuka's Astro Boy. Each character stands for humanization, but based on a different mentality. At first glance, Astro Boy might seem much more powerful than the little Medama Oyaji ("Eyeball Dad") spirit. Astro Boy, even though lovable and cute, is a powerful robot, while Medama Oyaji is little more than an almost invisible advisor to his son.

Source: Wikipedia

(c) Shigeru Mizuki

Engineers will strive towards building Astro Boy and replicate the features described by Osamu. But Astro Boy stays defined by his mechanism and his hardware capabilities. In a way, being a robot subconsciously inferior to humans, despite his ability to experience human emotion. In contrast, Medama Oyaji is a spirit (you could say a software), and as such regarded as superior to human.

Medama Oyaji reflects what we need. In the story, he reflects the need of an advisor. Astro Boy reflects function only and thus is limiting. So in innovation, Kawaguchi advises to look for role models that are more like Medama Oyaji and less like Astro Boy. If design is based on the real necessity, the design will be successful. If design is based on attaining functionality, it will have limits, he warns.

According to Kawaguchi, the concept of the "Eyeball Dad" is most visible in today's smartphones, the almost unvisible advisors that we carry around with us.

Note: This post is based on one of Morinosuke Kawaguchi's articles in DIME magazine.

Now how did that idea come into being?

Japanese Kabuki theatre (ironically, a subculture form of theatre at the time) has a tradition of overly exaggerated facial expressions through make-up. The cartoonish, caricature-like emphasis makes it easy for the spectator to recognize emotion, even from afar. That is the reason Kabuki-resembling eyes are used in Japan on crime-preventing posters.

But more than that, they live on in modern Japanese subculture. One of the most popular anime of all time is Gundam, a sci-fi story in which giant robot suits are piloted by humans. A Honda engineer was such a big fan of Gundam that his life goal was to actually make a Gundam. Of course, he would never get a budget for that. So instead he came up with the proto of what would later become the Monpal ML 200 cart which won the 2006 good design award. So this Gundam-inspired, subculture-inspired innovation carries real added value. The weak vehicle is being noticed thanks to its aggressive face. The same concept could be applied to harmonize traffic as a whole. Tezuka Osamu’s famous comic “Jungle Emperor” hints at it: the weak, harmless animal signals aggression to protect itself, while the large, powerful King of Animals carries himself in a gentle way.

What about our main orientation points and role models? No matter the culture, people always have their heroes. And if you compare the heroes in movies or on TV from 50 years ago to the ones shown now, you will see a transition from the mature, rational, tough guy towards increasingly younger and increasingly female protagonists. In one of the most popular anime series of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion, the 14-year old boyish hero is a weak-spirited wimp compared to the other two female protagonists. He saves the world nevertheless. And the latest world savior is SHE - the ultimate weapon.

While you might think this is exclusive to the world of entertainment, think about how deep an impact heroes have in our life, even later when we're adults. But this development permeates cuture and society, and as such it permeates how we create images. According to Kawaguchi, the manga hero is the best indicator for the future sense of value, and the best object to benchmark the future.

In Japan you’ll find a lot of toys that are so simple they only perform a single function over and over again in an infinite series. The most famous is Bandai’s puchi puchi, the reproduction of the bubble wrap we all love to pop. Even monkeys and Alzheimer patients apparently find pleasure. This shows how deeply rooted these compulsive behaviors are. What else? Eating Edamame, for example. Ripping perforated paper. And many, many more. Japanese have recognized these simple actions we are barely aware of and turned them into simple, analog toys.

From these basic, “silly” toys, we can learn a lot about hidden behavior, pleasant gadget interaction and how to bring gadgets closer to humans. Morinosuke Kawaguchi thinks that the designer's job is to come up with ways to elegantly integrate these concepts into the actual, functional product as an emotional add-on value.

Take something as simple as blue light. Japanese engineer Shuji Nakamura invented the first blue LED, and research found that exposure to blue light has calming effects. Knowing this, to what ends would you implement blue light effects?

In the UK, crime-stricken streets in Glasgow were illuminated by blue light. The crime rate dropped significantly as a result. The opposite approach can be found in Japan. Blue light was installed in places with high suicidal rates. Just as in the case of crime, the suicidal rate dropped.

In the current world, the carnivore approach is the most commonly used. The herbivore approach is to assist the weak as opposed to battling a foe. According to Morinosuke Kawaguchi, the same technology can be applied with different goals in mind, so with an herbivore mind you are able to generate innovative products without having to come up with a new technology.

The project is documented in this book “Open Sky 2.0”. It is a bilingual book (Japanese and English) that narrates and illustrates the fascinating journey to create a feasible personal jet glider.

amazon.jp/4757170351

Note also that Maeve was never about combat and reflects Nausicaä's character just beautifully.

Bandai's puchi puchi bubble wrap toy replicates the infinite pleasure of bubble wrap popping. For Morinosuke Kawaguchi, the hint here is the compulsion of using this toy over and over again, the good kind of addictiveness to a product feature. The question is how to transfer this irresistibility into the product design.

Kawaguchi shared some of his ideas on transferring irresistibility into product design at Sweden's Tillväxtdagen (“Growth Day”) back in 2010. Tillväxtdagen is an annual event in Sweden, organized by the Swedish Governmental Agencies for Growth.

Place:

Doshisha Business School
Japan, Kyoto

Topic:
Application of Japanese culture to Innovation and Design

Duration:
15x90 minute MBA course in English

If you ever had edamame you will know what a strangely pleasant action it is to squeeze out the pea. This infinite series toy replicates the sensation. The essence of this simple toy / keychain is irresistibility to the touch. Morinosuke Kawaguchi believes that the pleasure of touching needs to be integrated into product design.

Look at the food industry, for example.

The biggest simplification has been achieved by pre-packaged, ready-to-eat food products. Involvement is basically reduced to open the packaging and pushing the button of the microwave / add hot water. Not exactly tasks that require much skill, and you're not really proud of or much aware of the results. It is actually so convenient that it loses importance, even the act of eating (and value of the actual product if you are not careful). Of course the aim of cup noodles and microwave meals is to blend into the background, so they're doing it right. But if your product has to achieve a level of value, think about to which degree you leave out your client and especially to which level you want to make it convenient, advises Morinosuke Kawaguchi.

It’s good to not go all the way sometimes, he says.

According to him, a good example of how to do it right is the Japanese curry. It is easy to make, but actually not too easy. You still have to prepare the meat and chop vegetables and fry them. The sauce and taste - usually the most time-consuming part - comes from the pre-packaged curry mixes. The result? A sense of accomplishment, that you actually contributed to a result that looks and tastes pretty much like a real homemade meal. The key is the integration of (even just a little) involvement and skill to result in that sense of accomplishment. This is the feeling you might want to instill in your clients when they use your product. A certain level of skill as opposed to just a menial, impersonal task that seriously reduces the (emotional) value of your product.

Kawaguchi recommends you to think about how to transfer this concept to your product, your service or even to increase job satisfaction.

Place:
Tokyo, Japan / TV BS11 channel, INsideOUT

Time:
10:00pm to 10:55pm

Topic:
Professor Eiichi Yamaguchi and Professor Morinosuke Kawaguchi talk about Fukushima Project

Place:
FCCJ, Yurakucho 1-7-1, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Topic:
Analysis of harmful Fukushima disaster rumors and the resulting damage to Japan as a brand

Place:
Japan, Tokyo, Nikkei BP Seminar held at Gakushi Kaikan

Topic:
Japan's route to go as an industrial monozkuri country in times of crisis

Duration:
2x60 minute lecture in Japanese

Place:
Todai | The University of Tokyo

Topic:
Geeky-Girly Innovation -
A Japanese Subculturist's Guide to Technology and Design

Place:

E.O.I. Business School Madrid, Spain

Topic:
Geeky-Girly Innovation -
A Japanese Subculturist's Guide to Technology and Design

Watch his interview at EOI here.

Footage:

Footage of Morinosuke Kawaguchi at 2011 Salón del Manga, Barcelona, where he gave a lecture on Japanese subculture-inspired innovation. Salón del Manga is Europe's oldest manga&anime event and attracted some 70,000 visitors last year. Kawaguchi was also jury member at the event's cosplay event. Enjoy!

Place:
Elisava - Barcelona School of Design and Engineering

For more information, click here.

Topic:
Digital Innovation, Coolhunting and Design Thinking in Japan

Time:
18:45--20:00
60 minute lecture in English & 15 Minute Q&A

Link:Geeky-Girly Innovation: A Japanese Subculturist’s Guide to Technology and Design

Link: Morinosuke Kawaguchi y Carlos Rubio Lopez de la Llave el XVII Salon del Manga

Link: Morinosuke Kawaguchi y Carlos Rubio Lopez de la Llave el XVII Salon del Manga

Link: Japanese Design, Geeky-Girly Engineering

Time: 20:00-21:00
45 minute lecture in English with Spanish interpretation & 15 minute Q&A

Link: