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 Mio Yamada

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Mio Yamada
A freelance arts and lifestyle editor and writer, Mio Yamada focuses on design, crafts and architecture. When she’s not visiting galleries and trade fairs, you'll find her taking photos of everything and being distracted by shiny objects. She's also surprisingly British.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Feb 4, 2017
Put the pedal to the metal for Valentine's Day
If you haven't sorted out your loved one's special gift yet, On: Design this month has mined a few new ideas from Japan's metalworking industry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 31, 2016
Breakfast, served in style
Who says we can't play with our food? There's nothing wrong with serving a little bit of humor at the dining table.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 3, 2016
The British connection
While Brexit may have muddied the waters separating Japan and Britain, the design collaborations between the two island nations are still strong.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Nov 5, 2016
Tokyo Design Week: The professionals
Tokyo Design Week (TDW) seemed a little pared down this year, with a notable absence of a handicrafts creators' fair and only one awards exhibition. Nevertheless, it still offered the familiar lineup of products, interactive installations, architectural models, artworks and robots, as well as a new outdoor...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 29, 2016
Tokyo offers a wealth of innovative design, some of it for free
Tokyo Design Week has kicked in, with its first session ending on Oct. 31 and its second session running Nov. 2 to 7. But if the innovative products, architecture and robotics in Meiji Jingu Gaien are not enough to satiate your design curiosity, there are several free exhibitions in the city that are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2016
Loosening and tightening the corset on women's liberation
When the historical significance of fashion is discussed, the multi-talented artist Jean Cocteau is often quoted as having said, "Style is a simple way of saying complicated things."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 1, 2016
Building new design ideas
This month looks at fresh materials — from industrial metals to cocoa-inspired leather — to spruce up the work space.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 3, 2016
The cat's meow of creature comforts
This month, On: Design lets the cat out of the bag about The Japan Times' love of pets by allowing Chibi-chan, my adopted stray, to review a few products that she claims may persuade her to become a house pet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 20, 2016
Japan's architects are building a better future
Home-security AI cats; talking walls equipped with motion sensors; communal-living apartment blocks that promote harmonious relations; and outdoor living-room spaces powered by solar energy siphoned off hybrid cars — these previews of our future, currently on display at "House Vision 2," sound like...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 10, 2016
Wise Owl Hostels Tokyo
“What you need is a mediocre amount of sleep. It should be a good, short sleep from an exhausting, enriched experience. No time for sleep. Experience Tokyo.”
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 6, 2016
Designs on summer
The Japanese summer is not for everyone. Unbearable temperatures, clammy humidity and glaring sunshine can leave you a dripping, squinting, frizzy-haired, hot mess. We can't help you — but here's a few Japanese designs that may make summer a bit 'cooler' for you.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NEW IN TOWN
Jul 21, 2016
Sakurai Japanese Tea Experience
New to the Spiral building in Omotesando is Sakurai Japanese Tea Experience, which has relocated from its original Nishi-Azabu location to a spot directly next door to Mina Perhonen’s newly opened Call.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / NEW IN TOWN
Jul 15, 2016
Call: Mina Perhonen's new store has it all
Mina Perhonen’s new Call store is a one-stop shop in Omotesando for anyone who loves Nordic-inspired fashion and interiors. Filled with simple, soft-hued ceramics, rolls of irregular geometrically patterned textiles, racks of floaty cotton garments and displays of elegant hand-crafted goods, Call takes...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN,HOME TRUTHS
Jul 2, 2016
Japan's new retro
This month we look at quintessentially Japanese objects re-invented as modern-retro designs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jun 4, 2016
Japanese design reveals all
Japan is clearly having some fun with transparent product design.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 14, 2016
The woman who spent seven years 'locked' in Issey Miyake's wardrobe
"I'm so sorry I'm late," Midori Kitamura says as she settles into her chair. "OK, let's take a break."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
May 4, 2016
Okonomiyaki gives you nutrients you need!
A pop-up hits fast-food rivals where it hurts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 30, 2016
Our picks from Salone del Mobile Milano 2016
As always, Japan was well-represented at Salone del Mobile Milano last month, with Sou Fujimoto creating a forest of spotlights for clothing retailer H&M's COS brand, Panasonic's "Kukan — The Invention of Space" installation, as well as separate exhibitions, including the Experimental Creations showcase...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 2, 2016
Bags of innovative design
Bags exist in that limbo between fashionable and functional. They carry a purpose but elements of design and style make all the difference.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2016
Stitches in time make fashion sublime
All artistic practices inevitably borrow from the past, but fashion, in particular, seems to revel in revivals. Whether skillfully appropriated or brazenly duplicated, the familiar frequently finds its way back to the runway, be it in 1940s wide pants, '50s flared skirts, '60s babydoll dresses, '70s...

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A boom for business tourism in Japan?