Random Talks

Every well-run NPO needs caring, dynamic and versatile executives like Miho Walker and Amy Moyers. Before joining Living Dreams, Amy spent ten years h

Jun Aoki is known as a leader in customized rental properties, but started his career working in regular real estate brokerage and managing an interne

Batteries made from wood. Stone transformed into paper. Coffee turned in biochemicals to absorb odors and protect our skin from UV rays. Bioplastics a

Japan has approximately 430 inhabited islands. It took Atsuko Isamoto, though, to create a website called Ritokei linking them all together. With the

Hans Reitz shares a vision with 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus: a planet utterly without poverty. In 2008, the two established t

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

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

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

Tamako Mitarai has always focused on doing work in places where her efforts can make a real difference. While she was a student, she worked with NGOs

Nobu Okada discovered his passion for all things space after attending NASA space camp in high school. Now, as founder of Singapore start-up ASTROSCAL

Renée Byer has the rare inner lens needed to produce photos with profound emotional resonance and sensitivity. That talent has brought her countless h

Fujiyo Ishiguro preaches the mechanics of digital marketing to companies who make great products but can’t create the sales systems needed to retail t

Eisuke Tachikawa launched his Wiki web project OLIVE just forty hours after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. The crowdsourcing database gathere

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

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

The man responsible for developing Bandai Co., Ltd.’s wildly popular capsule toys, Shimpei Takahashi, is in love with the idea of ideas. His most nota