Latest / It's All Japanese to Me / Ep. 1 — Hello: a design researcher in Japan

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Ep. 1 — Hello: a design researcher in Japan · It's All Japanese to Me

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Rikuto Murakami.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the first episode.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: So let me start with a quick introduction.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a design researcher based in Japan.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: In my work,
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I talk with different people,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: visit different places,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: and try to understand people's everyday lives in order to form questions
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: or hypotheses for design.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I also run a small research and design unit with a friend of mine who is a product designer.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: The unit is called Noto Katachi in Japanese.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: No means field and Katachi means form or shape.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what we do is we go out into the field,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: look closely, and then try to give what we found a form or shape.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So far, our work has been focused on crafts,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: visiting flare markets and antique markets.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So why do I start a podcast?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, I wanted to share more about what we do with more people.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: as we work in Japan,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've been curious about how this kind of work looks to people outside Japan.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So our way of working is to go out into the field, think slowly, and make something meaningful.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something particularly Japanese about that,
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: or is it close to what people are doing in other places?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want to find out and I thought talking about it in English might help.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the plan for this podcast.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode will be very short, around five minutes or so.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I will pick one Japanese word each time and often about craft or design,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I guess,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: and explain what it means and share a little context from my everyday life or what.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And actually this format is inspired by Loveser FM,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: a Japanese podcast that picks one keyword each episode.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've been enjoying that for a while and wanted to try something similar.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, that's it for today.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The first words to explore will come next time.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: See you then.