This presentation was originally presented on November 11, 2007 by Julie Lasky, editor in chief of I.D. Magazine and Design Conference during Tokyo Designer's Week.

I must begin this talk with a confession. This is my first visit to Japan. Imagine a fashion editor who has never seen Italy or a food expert who has never been to France, and you can understand my embarrassment. I don't have to tell you that Japan has long been respected for its beautiful crafts and for the sensitivity of its architects to color, light, and texture. More recently, the world has looked here for inspiration in automotive design, consumer electronics, and fashion. Japan is a design capital and should be considered a first stop in the careers of people like myself.

Thanks to this conference, I am finally correcting the error of my ways. But I also take comfort from the fact that my magazine has visited Japan many times before. I.D. was founded in 1954 as a publication for industrial designers. It came to life at a time when Americans were in love with the goods and convenience made affordable by mass production, and it immediately began looking over its shoulder to see how the rest of the world was developing.

In July 1959, for example, I.D. published an in-depth article called "Made in Japan." Its author began by asking, "How has it happened that a country with a vigorous folk art tradition and a highly developed sense of fine workmanship has acquired a reputation for shoddiness and imitation?" Her explanation took the form of a lesson about Japan's economic circumstances, trade organizations, domestic and international markets, and limited educational opportunities for industrial designers. Meanwhile, she challenged negative attitudes about Japanese design with pictures of Canon cameras. Mitsubishi trucks, and a Toshiba rice cooker designed by Yoshiharu Iwata, which was said to have been the salvation of many Japanese marriages.

Other stories about Japanese products followed; and in 1984, the year in which Sony introduced the Walkman, I.D. devoted an entire issue to Japanese design. You can see the Walkman on the cover, attached to an obi, signaling the overlap of tradition and modernity. By this time, of course, Japan was at the top of the global economy. Companies that were mentioned only briefly, if at all, 25 years before-Canon, Honda, Matushita-were now the subjects of a lead article celebrating Japan's detail-oriented "corporate design process." A story titled "Irony, Novelty, Quality" featured products that could easily be marketed today, such as Shiro Kuramata's plexiglass wall clock and a simple wood and glass coffee table by Kazumasa Oda. I'm especially fond of a lamp with metal struts that's described as the work of "architecture student" Shigeru Ban.

In the 1980s, I.D. broadened its focus beyond industrial design. But when I became editor in 2002, I wanted to reflect the interests of contemporary designers by making it truly interdisciplinary. I noticed that while many countries showed strength in a particular medium such as textiles or furniture, Japanese designers were excelling in all areas-from graphics to fashion to architecture. Case in point: in January of 2005, we published a "power list" of the 50 most influential people in design. Five members of the group were Japanese. Not only did this number represent an impressive 12.5 percent of a list drawn from the entire world, but this group was extremely diverse. It consisted of John Maeda, the Japanese-born graphic designer and new-media pioneer; Toshiyuki Kita, designer of the Sharp Aquos TV; Teruo Kurosaki, owner of the design emporium Idée; Naoto Fukasawa, who ran the Tokyo office of the American design firm IDEO and has been the genius behind many products sold by Muji; and the team that designed the Prius hybrid car for Toyota.