August 2020– date –

【Using a chainsaw to cut butter】 The above words are a wise saying by Barry Commoner, an American biologist, to express the inefficiency of nuclear power generation. By the way, the topic of this article is not about energy policies; N...

Horyuji temple in Nara prefecture is the world's oldest wooden building. It has the history of more than 1,400 years. How do you think that happens in this earthquake country? As you can imagine, it's a very harsh environment especially for wooden buildings. The average lifetime of current residential buildings is about 30 years in Japan.

The huge bubble burst in 1991, and the Japanese economy completely collapsed. The era after the bubble burst was once called "lost two decades" but now becomes "three decades". The long and severe domestic competitions force most of us to withdraw from the market. Remaining survivors are companies of real value where people continue to work diligently even at lower wages. Japanese products were thought to be "good but expensive" in the past but nowadays have changed to "good and cheap". There's no reason not to buy Japan (our products) now!

The range of information we access to gets narrower because we can't imagine information we've never known; nor search for such information even on the internet. Making matters worse, the internet only provides information related to our interest.

【Differentiation doesn't work any more】 How to differentiate an item from other products in the market? Many marketers keep thinking all the time, but differentiation in value is no longer a determinant factor for survival in the curre...

【Design something to fascinate even people with less materialistic desires 】 This time, Michael talks about how product designs would change according to the changes in the market, especially about changes due to the recent rise of sub...