Testimonials

Morinosuke Kawaguchi at the World Innovation Forum Kuala Lumpur 2013
Morinosuke Kawaguchi at the World Innovation Forum Kuala Lumpur 2013

Morinosuke Kawaguchi is often the keynote speaker at innovation forums and international conferences around the world. In 2013 he was invited by the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office for a keynote speech at the World Innovation Forum Kuala Lumpur. In 2014 he was once again invited to Malaysia, this time to be the keynote speaker at the Pangkor International Development Dialogue.
More about Morinosuke’s activities in Malaysia here and here
Info on The Brand Personality Award, presented to Morinosuke in Kuala Lumpur in 2014, here

In Japan, Morinosuke has been the keynote speaker for various innovation forums, including the IBM Innovation Forum 2014, Nikkei Innovation Forum 2013, Hitachi Innovation Forum 2013 and others.

He also makes presentations and holds creative workshops in both Japanese and English, not only in Japan but also abroad. He is frequently interviewed by the international media and appears as a commentator on television.
Yahoo Japan listed Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s TEDxTokyo Toilet Talks as one of the world’s Top 5 presentations. As of June 2014 this same presentation has achieved more than 154,542 views on YouTube and an astonishing 405, 974 hits on Yahoo Japan, ranking it no. 1 in Yahoo Japan’s video list. Please scroll down to see the video!

The South Korean search portal Naver Japan chose his TEDxTokyo Toilet Talks as one of the best presentations online, along with lectures by MIT’s Hiroshi Ishii and famous game developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

Some of the organizations, companies, universities and international events where Japanese futurist Morinosuke Kawaguchi has made keynote speeches & presentations. Also included in this image are some of the world media outlets that interviewed him.
Some of the organizations, companies, universities and international events where Japanese futurist Morinosuke Kawaguchi has made keynote speeches & presentations. Also included in this image are some of the world media outlets that interviewed him.

Kawaguchi lectures at universities, business schools, and delivers keynote speeches at international conferences. He holds bilingual company seminars and workshops around the world. His references include Harvard University Graduate School of Design, HULT International Business School, University of Arts London, IED Istituto Europeo di Design, EOI Spain’s School for Industrial Organization, Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of Tokyo, The National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), a national research institution under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), TEDxTokyo, Toyota, Nissan, Fast Retailing, Fujitsu, NEC, and many others. He was a keynote speaker at the World Innovation Forum Kuala Lumpur 2013, invited by the Office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia. In 2014 he was invited by Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s National Strategy Headquarters.
川口盛之助氏の presentation「今後の価値の変化」 3つの科学で見た「知平面」の風景と「ライフサイクル」の宿命
川口盛之助講演の紹介20140713
Here are some testimonials about him:

“Our president, Mr. Tadashi Yanai, has read Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s books and invited Mr. Kawaguchi for a lecture in our Tokyo headquarters. We live broadcasted the presentation to our offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh and France so our international teams could also learn from Mr. Kawaguchi’s highly creative and unique viewpoint. Mr. Kawaguchi is able to both distance himself from Japan and at the same time squeeze out the essence of Japanese culture in order to come up with new business ideas. This is exactly what a multinational company like ours needs. Thank you! ”
Naoki Otoma, Group Executive Vice President, Fast Retailing, Japan

“Morinosuke Kawaguchi is a highly renowned and respected personality among many in Malaysia. He was first invited by Malaysia Innovation Foundation (an organisation under the purview of Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation) to present the keynote speech at the 2013 World Innovation Forum Kuala Lumpur. Mr. Kawaguchi’s unique viewpoint of our country’s strategic future positioning in the world indeed impressed our government officials as well as leaders of our business community. As such, we have recognised him as a futurist who can greatly contribute to our nation’s 2020 strategy.
In 2014, Mr. Kawaguchi was invited by the Perak State Government to be the keynote speaker at the Pangkor International Development Dialogue 2014 and once again, he mesmerized the audience with his detailed research data and analysis of future megatrends. His proposal for Malaysia, as well as Perak, revealed a lot of aspects that were groundbreaking and valuable to Malaysians.
Mr. Kawaguchi was also presented the Brand Personality Award by BrandLaureate and Asia Pacific Brand Foundation, both of which former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad is Patron.
For us, Mr. Kawaguchi is an important asset and we want to continue to tap on his expertise and hope to work with him for many more years to come.”
Mazalan Kamis, CEO, Institute Darul Ridzuan, the public policy think tank for the Perak State Government, Malaysia

“In his lecture, Morinosuke Kawaguchi made me realize that Korea has an amazing opportunity at its hand to recognize its own style of innovation. Morinosuke’s culture-based approach is perfect for us to find our core competence and our position in the world market. I bought Kawaguchi’s books for my offices around the world because they are not only fun to read and make us more creative, but they are full of hints on the winning strategy business people are looking for to have real competitiveness.”
KyungChun Jang, CEO of FunctionBay, Inc., South Korea

“Morinosuke gave a great presentation on some of the hidden strengths of Japanese design for Swedish policy makers in innovation and growth. His ideas and insights are inspirational, forward looking and well worth paying attention to in Japan, Sweden and elsewhere… and his lectures are fun too!”
Anders Karlsson, Counsellor Science and Innovation, Embassy of Sweden, Tokyo, Japan

“Morinosuke has a real sense of the future trends and what will spark them. This sense is the same one many innovators use during their creative processes.”
Patrick Newell, Co-founder, TEDxTokyo, Japan

“Morinosuke Kawaguchi has a very distinctive knowledge of cutting-edge technology and its characteristics. That allows him to connect technology and appealing product innovations across many industries. I enjoyed his lecture and got inspired and entertained at the same time.”
Lorenz Granrath, Representative, Fraunhofer Representative Office Japan

“Morinosuke’s great talent is to make his audience see and understand, as if for the first time, Japanese customs and commonplace objects. By analyzing human behaviour and interaction, he demystifies the processes which spark creative innovation. Always fascinating!”
Heidi Potter, Chief Executive, Japan Society London, U.K.

“Professor Morinosuke Kawaguchi is a phenomenon. He has deep and wide knowledge of innovation, technology, design and culture and he is able to present any material in an entertaining fashion that is uniquely “Morinosuke style”. He is blessed with everything that a person wishes for and yet so few are lucky to have: an incredibly unique mind that creates fascinating content, wonderful writing ability that makes reading his books such a pleasure and a presentation style which makes him a world-class entertainer. I know him as a selfless and giving person who is always willing to discuss ideas with fans, students, or anyone who attends his lectures. I respect him very much and I feel lucky to have learnt from him through his books, lectures and workshops. I don’t call living people geniuses often but Professor Kawaguchi is definitely one genius I am lucky to know. Thank you for giving knowledge so freely to everyone. If we could clone Professor Kawaguchi, we would like a few of him in South Korea. “
Jin H. Choi, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea

“Whether you are looking for technological, business or cultural solutions, Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s innovative strategy sparks creativity across disciplines!”
Jennifer Anderson, Head of Communications and Events, Japan Society London, U.K.

“Morinosuke´s lecture at EOI was to us like a breath of fresh air, spreading all these fantastic new ideas. One normally thinks that reality is the way it is and nothing can be changed, however, all of the sudden a person comes and shares ideas that make your mind upside down and helps you see things in a complete different way! That´s what Morinosuke did!! Arigatoooooooo!!”
Eva Curto, Director of International Affairs, EOI-Business School, Madrid, Spain

“Morinosuke gave a very engaging and enlightening presentation at the DIJ Business & Economics Study Group on June 13, 2011. It attracted by far the largest audience of our study group and the audience feedback was unanimous that his talk was truly amazing and entertaining. We all learnt a lot!”
Dr. Florian Kohlbacher, Head of Business & Economics Section German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Tokyo, Japan

“We had our first SDL DITA Day 2012 in Japan. We received a lot of positive feedback on the event and also on Morinosuke’s lecture. There is a huge potential market here for us and his keynote presentation gave the audience lots of hints for innovative thinking so important to companies that want to stay in the race and win, too. Morinosuke showed us a different view of the world and Japanese products. It was a wonderful presentation with stories of new technologies and ways of content creation for our clients’ products that our audience probably hase never heard of or thought about. I personally enjoyed his lecture immensely and from their feedback, we know that the audience did, also.”
Yoshio Fujimatsu, SDL Sales Director, Japan

“Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s innovation model is a breakthrough. Whenever I listen to him lecture, I get inspired.”
Dr. Eiichi Yamaguchi, Professor, Graduate School of Policy and Management, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

“Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s lecture is amazing! It’s the best way to understand how “subculture” from Japan can inspire innovative products.”
Pedro Medina, Director of Cultural Affairs, IED Madrid, Spain

Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s TEDxTokyo Toilet Talks in Japanese:

Morinosuke Kawaguchi’s TEDxTokyo Toilet Talks in English:

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Book blurbs



Book blurbs from the English edition “Geeky-Girly Innovation: A Japanese Subculturalist’s Guide to Technology and Design”:

“As much a deeply inspiring tour of Japanese subcultures as it is an indispensable and riveting guide to how business and technology can benefit from them. Kawaguchi’s landmark bestseller elegantly explores how the marriage of otaku geek culture to modern industrial design can help shape the next generation of world-class technologies.”
—Nate Lanxon, Editor, Wired.co.uk

“A must read for those who want to know why Steve Jobs was so fascinated with Japan. He found the essence of ‘craziness and creativity’ in Japan, which is what this book is all about.”
—Hirotaka Takeuchi, Professor, Harvard Business School

“Today’s Japanese are geeky, girly, and ultimately childish—and that’s to be celebrated. So says Morinosuke Kawaguchi in a voice as conversational and offhand as that of a pal in a riverside cafe. He ascribes such traits to Japan’s long stretch of peace, prosperity, and self-imposed isolation, and he sees them behind the genius of Japanese innovations, from Tamagotchi virtual pets to heated toilet seats to hushed hybrid cars. This book will raise howls of indignation and charges of ethnocentrism among those who find mere wafts of nihonjinron incendiary. More power to it.”
—Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US

“Kawaguchi’s book is not just about how to make more innovative and appealing products. It also provides a compass for developing a manufacturing strategy in a highly competitive world. Kawaguchi’s message inspires a unique approach to product design and customer needs alike that is still largely untapped.”
—Nobuyuki Idei, Founder and CEO, Quantum Leaps Corporation; Chairman of the Advisory Board and Former Group CEO, Sony Corporation

“A masterpiece that depicts in detail and analyzes the essence of the word ‘ otaku,’ used to describe oddballs and nerds. When I finished this book, I felt at peace with the fact that I’m also an otaku .”
—Dr. Kazuhiko Nishi, former board member and vice president of new technology, Microsoft,1979–85

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