Random Talks

A partner at renowned design firm IDEO and the co-leader of both IDEO’s Bay Area operation and its Asia initiative, Owen Rogers stands squarely at the

Brainstorms are Tom Kelley’s stock-in-trade, and when he says creativity is the secret to economic growth, people listen. After all, Tom helped take g

Nana Watanabe has a wide-angle lens on life. As a photographer, she has shot for iconic brands like Shiseido, Sony Music and Paris Vogue, and also exh

You can think of Toshi Nakamura’s NGO, Kopernik, as an online marketplace offering low tech with a higher purpose. Since 2009, Kopernik—a member of th

Sometimes a single unlikely idea can have massive impact across the world. Sir Harold Evans, the author of They Made America, describes how frustratio

Street culture is about to take possession of a new vehicle for sonic expression. Spinning your wheels on Turntable Rider̶a custom-hacked BMX bike tur

For the Deaf, the subtlest of hand movements and aspects can express vast meaning yet convey little to voice-oriented humans. Junto Ohki now stands as

Art Director and Designer Cook, preserve, store, serve—the core sequence of events in any kitchen—is simpler now thanks to the OSORO smart tableware s

Plastic doesn’t seem so fantastic these days—more an ecological nightmare that is overflowing our garbage dumps, accumulating in vast, drifting island

Inspired by the world renowned annual arts event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, Burning Man has become a global cultural movement with more than

An “explorer of all things Japan, from high finance to low-level politics”, Jesper Koll has over two decades of experience at major financ

Morinosuke Kawaguchi loves geeks. What’s more, he fashions solid notions for tweaking technology and other products from his close observations of Jap

Legions of photographers are grateful that Bruce Livingstone left his punk-rock band, The Bittermen, in 1996. That’s because the Canadian entrepreneur

People love working for Ricco DeBlank. Two years after he took over the Ritz-Carlton Osaka in 2003, for example, an industry survey ranked it as Japan

Jesper Koll calls himself a professional Japan optimist, but that doesn’t prevent him from speaking constructive truths to power. An advisor to a broa

Few Westerners have delved deeper into the Japanese consumer’s psyche than Bill Hall. Bill started one of Japan’s first specialist healthcare market r