After the March 11 disaster dealt a severe blow to Japanese manufacturers, Nissan earned international praise for its swift recovery from the crisis. Shiga Toshiyuki talks about his company’s approach to risk management and strategy for growth in the face of adversity.
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Kita Toshiyuki is an award-winning product designer whose work fuses Japanese traditions with a contemporary, cosmopolitan sensibility. We talked to him about the characteristics of Japanese design and its potential to restore an ailing economy.
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The Department of Japanese and Japanese Literature at Cairo University is a major center for Japanese studies in the Arab world and has produced many of the region’s Japanese scholars and Japan specialists. We talked to the head of the program about the state of Japanese studies in the Arab world today.
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Nippon.com went live in October 2011 to bring information on “the real Japan” to a global audience. Shiraishi Takashi and Harano Jōji discuss the prospects for Japan, Asia, and the global economy as the website enters its first full year of operation in 2012.
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During his time as administrative vice-minister for the environment, Kobayashi Hikaru was instrumental in putting together the Kyoto Protocol and other important environmental white papers. Kobayashi shares his ideas on Japan’s post–March 11 future and introduces us to his own specially designed “eco-house.”
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Kominato Akihisa is a ground-breaking virtuoso on the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute. For Kominato, the appeal of the shakuhachi lies in its resemblance to the human voice. It is this proximity to song that makes the shakuhachi a perfect match with music of all kinds. Kominato is embarking on an ambitious mission to bring the pleasures of the shakuhachi to the world.
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