The Next Generation of Japanese Design
LU STOUT: Welcome back. Now, all this week CNN is on the road in Japan. Now, today we head to an award-winning Japanese design studio. It's gaining worldwide recognition for the trends it's setting. Now, Paula Newton spoke to the founder of that studio about what sets it apart.</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The simultaneous simplicity and sophistication of Japanese design can at times be hard to grasp. From architecture to lamp shades, the aesthetic is subtle but you find yourself drawn to it. It can inspire feelings, emotions even, these design instincts have been bred for centuries and now reborn at Japanese design house Nendo. From its perch in central Tokyo, it's become one of the most prolific design houses in the world. And its creative heart is founder Oki Sato who, at the moment of this interview, had more than 400 projects on the go.</s>OKI SATO, FOUNDER, NENDO: I'm like a top, when you keep on spinning, the center part is always very stable. But when it starts to get slow, it gets like this. It gets kind of wobbly.</s>NEWTON: Starts to would wobble.</s>SATO: Right. .</s>NEWTON: His concepts are as pure and ingenious as Japan's design pedigree. But they do go beyond. Nendo means Playdoh, or modeling clay, in Japanese, a metaphor Sato says stands for something that is fluid, flexible, transformative.</s>SATO: In a way I think Japanese design it's about the idea, which is the most important thing. So it is very flexible. You -- the outfit could end up in a very different way, a different form, which really helps companies sometimes.</s>NEWTON: It is that concept of form and function that finds resonance globally for Japanese design. For more than three decades from housewares to furniture to food, Muji's flagship Tokyo store has scrubbed the place bare of embellishments, even the branding. Muji's design executive Naoko Yano (ph) tells me why.</s>NAOKO YANO, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE PLANNING AND DESIGN, MUJI:  (through translator): When we explain Muji (ph) to the people overseas we would say no brand, no name. There are three points for manufacturing, reflecting material, improving production process and simplifying the wrapping. These are the points we take seriously.</s>NEWTON: And that is the essence of how Japanese design is evolving. Take this seat now in Nendo's cabbage chair, layers of fabric remnants from designer Izi Miyaki, are peeled open.</s>SATO: I tried to add a pinch of humor or friendliness. It's something that creates a link between people and objects.</s>NEWTON: In truth, Japanese design is built on timeless principles but they have at times been unyielding and rigid, a new wave of design here takes the best of that inheritance and imagines a whole new modern design history to come. Paula Newton, CNN, Tokyo.</s>LU STOUT: Wow, some beautiful works of product design there. And we will have much more from Japan all this week. And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout, but don't go anywhere, world sport with Amanda Davies is next. END