Andrew Tuck reporting from Sapporo: With its drip-filter coffee, myriad craft shops and quality fishing scene, Hokkaido’s capital reels you in with a laidback lifestyle and a strong stroke of creativity.
Take two retail visionaries, one Tokyo store space and one great idea, and you’ve got the Good Design Shop, a concept store made to change the way people consume.
Monocle has drawn up a shortlist of 20 people – from politics, business, music and design – who we want to hear more of in 2009. By overcoming the odds, finding gaps in the market and thinking creatively, they’ve already…
The ancient art of sumo has been under threat in recent years from the dwindling numbers of homegrown wrestlers, match-fixing allegations, bullying and doping scandals. But fresh leadership in the Japan Sumo Association…