Happy New Year! Hope you all got a good start for 2009. I pray that this year we will all be healthier, kinder and smarter than ever before! And may we all have peace and more time to read great books and articles.
Let's start with one of 2008's most talked-about book, Morinosuke Kawaguchi's "Otaku de Onnanoko no Kuni no Monozukuri", published by Kodansha. Last October it won Japan's prestigious NikkeiBP BizTech Book Award for 2008:
Nikkei BP BizTech Book Award 2008
The author is my husband and he is a genius!

The book's English subtitle is "The Neon Genesis of Geeky-Girly Japanese Engineering" and it's a must-read for everybody who appreciates Japanese technology, monozukuri and otaku culture.
Here are comments by the NikkeiBP BizTech Book Award selection committee chairman, Mr. Hirotaka Takeuchi, Dean of Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University: "otaku de onnanoko-na kuni no monozukuri" (by Morinosuke Kawaguchi) shows a number of "tools and products that are only natural to the Japanese but unique by international standards" and analyzes the temperament, mentality, and values of the Japanese people who create them. The author, who works for a consulting firm and knows well about subcultures, points to 10 aspects of the geeky nature of Japanese products and says that what drives Japanese product-making are the country’s standout "childishness" and "effeminateness." He also claims that the country can expand its future by utilizing strategically its "geeky and girly" culture, which is at the opposite end of the "mature and manly" culture of the West. The book was received highly in the way it showed the source of strength in future Japanese product-making from a new perspective, drawing on numerous illustrative examples." Thanks, Takeuchi sensei!
From washlets to stationary, from kabuki masks to Japanese bikes, from manga and anime to Prius and robots, this fun book gives readers a deeper understanding of Japanese culture. The book is loved by engineers, designers, and Akihabara's otakus as well as by world-famous Japanese fashion designer, Hanae Mori san, who wrote a wonderful book review of it for the Sankei newspaper. Thanks for everyone's support, it's in its third printing within just about one year. Thanks for reading it!
Otaku de onnanoko-na kuni no monozukuri is already being translated into Korean and simplified Chinese. We hope to have it available in many countries so please contact me if you know a publisher that would like to publish it in other languages.
And here is the link to Morinosuke Kawaguchi's article series for Nikkei BP online. They're fun!
川口盛之の「ニッポン的ものづくりの起源」
このコラムでは、商品の機能やデザインにフォーカスし、その商品が生まれた発想の起源を探ります。特に日本の商品に密かに隠れたいかにもニッポン的な「和」のテイストに注目しながら、日本のものづくり文化に息づく競争力の源泉をひもといていきます。
Morinosuke Kawaguchi's Nipponteki Monozukuri series for Nikkei BP

To write the next book, we recently flew to Guam. We love Guam! I am also a huge fan of the local newspaper, Pacific Daily News and read it from top to bottom every day. It's such a fun newspaper because it's so much about Guam. I feel part of the community when I read it and I don't even live there. I even rip out pages and bring them home to put into photobooks ! So I was thrilled that my favorite Guam newspaper ran a story about my husband. Thanks a million, Guam Pacific Daily News and their wonderful writer, Levanna Eugenio!
Pacific Daily News Article on Morinosuke Kawaguchi

I also found that Arohan, a blogger, picked up on the PDN article and ran with it. Thanks, Arohan! Check out what he's talking about right here:
Personal Dividends
Thanks for reading! JK