Lisa Katayama

TokyoMango

Lisa Katayama is a bilingual journalist and Japanese contemporary culture expert. Her blog, TokyoMango.com, is an archive of fun products, strange news, and cultural tidbits from her native Japan. Her book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan, is a collection of life hacks that use ordinary objects to do extraordinary things. Recent assignments include stories for Wired, PopSci, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, and PRI’s Studio360. She has a MA in Human Rights from Columbia and lives on the West Coast.

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Sessions

2:55pm Wednesday, 03/11/2009

Japanese Tech Culture: Demystifying "Weird" Japanese Toys and Tools

Developing Markets, Geek Life, Mobile and The Web
Location: Gold Room

Lisa Katayama (TokyoMango), Fumi Yamazaki (Fumi Yamazaki)

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What do Japanese geeks, teenagers, and high school girls do for hours behind their computers and cell phone screens? Katayama and Yamazaki demonstrate several examples of web apps and gadgets that are fun, creative, and uniquely Japanese. Through these, we see how crucial, hard-to-grasp aspects of Japanese culture materialize as new obsessions when technology is thrown into the mix. Read more.

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