Dec 10, 2010 The Infinite Appeal of Morinosuke Kawaguchi
No one speaks more deeply and enthusiastically about bubble wrap or the front-loading stapler than Morinosuke Kawaguchi, the Arthur D. Little technology and innovation consultant you may have come across this summer via his talk at Tedx Tokyo on Japanese toilet design. (“We try to find the fun–even in the toilet! Toilets nowadays, they talk!: ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ They talk!”) So naturally I thought there’s no better time to review his work than holiday shopping season in a recession. His “Soft-Test” series over at JapanTechLessons covers the peculiar qualities of consumer goods that make them so appealing (like the zip tear on a box of Ritz: “Wow!”). Guess what everyone on my list is getting this year (…and I don’t mean Kawaguchi’s latest book).