Our most recent issue, which features more than 200 of the most ingenious new products of 2007, includes names like Ippe Matsumoto, who designed this calculator for the London studio Industrial Facility; the manufacturer Kyoei, which produced this umbrella stand combined with a flower pot; Toyo Ito, who created this faucet for the Spanish company Altro; Jiro Endo and Masafumi Sumiyoshi, who designed this mercibeaucoup, shop in Aoyama; and Tokyo-based Craft Design Technology, which released what they claim is “the most beautiful inkpad.” They’re right. It is.I could name other examples except that I’m sure I’m pronouncing all these names incorrectly (except for Craft Design Technology).

As I hope this presentation makes clear, I not only appreciate but also depend on the innovative design coming out of Japan. And I am far from the first I.D. editor who has done so. Fifty years ago, even though Japan had yet to develop its reputation for manufacturing excellence, my magazine recognized its potential to become an industrial-design power. It pointed out that the simplicity and austerity of Western Modernism, which made for efficient machine-made products, originated in the West’s obsession with Japanese aesthetics. It also suggested that standardization—another requirement of mass production—was easily understood by a society that based its architectural dimensions on the unit of the tatami mat. What captivated my predecessors, as it captivates me, is the ability of Japanese design to be simple and economical without sacrificing its soul. This lesson can be learned in many boutiques and in any bookshop in America representing Japanese style, but I am delighted to finally have the opportunity to study it at its source.