*** 365 Thinking References to Read One Page a Day When You're Feeling Stuck and Feeling Frustrated
*** Creative thinking from a toy creator from the hobby/entertainment company BANDAI
*** Lonely Gourmet, Attack on Titan, Asahi Draft Beer… Innovative ideas in Japan's unique cultural products.

A self-help book has been published to replenish the brains of planners, marketers, writers, and creators who have been struggling to come up with new ideas every day, only to find themselves exhausted and depleted.
This is the "1 Thinking Idea Class a Day" written by a famous Japanese toy and game developer.
The author is known to have developed the hit toy 'Infinite Bubble Wrap', which sold over 5 million units worldwide for Bandai Corporation.
This toy was inspired by the sight of people endlessly popping bubble wrap with their fingers, and was created to replicate that sensation and pleasure with silicone, allowing users to pop bubble wrap infinitely.
Adults who can't resist fidgeting with pens and cell phones, worship him! The author won the grand prize in the Trendy Toy category at the 1st Japan Toy Awards, and his idea generation lecture at TEDxTokyo has surpassed 2 million views.
You can learn all about the author's creative toy planning and marketing skills in this book.

“I wish I had Doraemon’s magic pouch.” 『1 Thinking Idea Class a Day』 is a storehouse of ideas and a box of inspiration for those who always need to create new content or products.
In particular, the author finds familiar yet advanced ideas in unique Japanese cultural products.
Learn work ethic from the drama "The Solitary Gourmet," break through the limitations of your imagination by reading the manga "Attack on Titan," and master contextual marketing from Asahi draft beer cans.
The various stories about gacha gacha (capsule toys), kendama (rice balls), yakitori (chicken skewers), ekiben (lunch boxes), etc. provide an experience as if you were traveling to every corner of Japan and getting inspiration.

With the motto, "Find one idea a day and your life will change," this book organizes numerous ideas discovered or thought of by the author in various fields such as work/study/family/hobbies/love/money/career path, one page at a time, so that each can be read in one minute.
Let's start the year off fresh by reading 365 chapters with a light heart, one page a day.

The market for toys sold from vending machines, called capsule toys (gacha gacha), is said to be a huge business market worth approximately 45 billion yen as of 2021, and you can see vending machines lined up in large numbers in shopping facilities and other places.
It is.
Capsule toys are a great invention because they allow you to buy fun toys anywhere for just a few coins, but what makes them truly great is that they are a system that allows for an infinite number of product ideas.
--- p.37, from “The Greatness of Capsule Toys, Where Ideas Proliferate Infinitely” on January 8th

There's a simple idea generation technique I can recommend to anyone.
It's a method of thinking called 'Nikoichi' where when one idea comes to mind, you must pair it with an idea that is the reverse of that idea.
For example, if you were trying to think of a title for a book that teaches you how to speak well, you might think of "How to Become a Better Speaker." But you might also come up with a title that is paradoxical and counterintuitive: "Why You Inadvertently Speak Wrong."
Then the idea is divided into two.
It's very simple.
--- p.76, from “Nikoichi’s Idea Creation Method that Doubles Your Ideas on February 15th”

I'm thinking of a product idea called 'AB Type Notebook'.
This is a special note for people with blood type AB.
The left and right pages are divided into 'Side A' and 'Side B'. When thinking of something, write down your serious and meticulously thought-out ideas on Side A, and write down your free-spirited ideas on Side B.
And the balanced idea is written in the middle.
This allows you to come up with ideas that are subtle, yet bold and fun.
--- p.111, from “Let’s think about a product exclusively for type AB on March 20th”

When I was a company employee, I planned, developed, and sold a toy called "300 Million Yen."
This is a figure of a wad of money containing a whopping 300 million yen.
This miniature figure contains 30 1,000,000 yen bill bundle figures in a duralumin case bag. You can take out the bill bundles and display them or play with them.
You might be wondering, 'What on earth is the purpose of this product?', but as soon as this product was released, fans of various character figures started posting pictures of themselves using the money bundles on the Internet.
--- p.126, from "Learning Marketing Mindset with the 300 Million Yen Figure on April 3rd"

There is a store called 'King's Idea' that was founded in 1965 and has captivated countless people and is now an online mail-order site.
The products that the King's Idea deals with are 'non-essentials' that are mostly just for laughter and enjoyment.
There are piggy banks that can collect 1 million yen, drinking birds that can drink water endlessly, and moras that move between your fingers, etc.
Does the world really need such strange products? Why do creators continue to create them?
--- p.177, from "May 22nd Useless General Store 'The King's Idea'"

When I buy horseradish and mustard in tube containers, I always choose S&B's "Honnama Series."
There are a few minor reasons.
The differences in the contents include that the horseradish is not made from Western horseradish, the mustard is made by 'grinding' rather than cracking, the gold-plated packaging box, and the emphasis on being number one in the food category.
But the first reason I instinctively choose this product is because the food pictured on the packaging looks delicious.
--- p.213, from “The Importance of Visual Information Learned from Wasabi Packaging on June 26”

Businessmen always try to think of 'what will sell'.
I would advise such a person to think about what is 'something that will never sell'.
Imagine developing a new product called a 'dirty, smelly rag'.
You might think that no one would buy something like that, but it might sell for a piece or two as a valuable item used in a shocking project for a television entertainment program.
It's surprisingly difficult to think of a product that will never sell.
--- p.223, from "A Breakthrough in July 4th Marketing: Think of Things That Won't Sell at All"

Kawakami Sangyo Co., Ltd.'s bubble wrap sheet, used to package fragile items, is now common knowledge.
By the way, do you know about the new product 'Bakbak-i (Spaspaspaspa)', which can be said to be an evolution of Bapbak-i?
Bubble wrap has round air particles, while pakbak has square air particles arranged in a checkerboard pattern. If you tear it by hand along the gaps between the particles, you can cut it in a straight line.
--- p.256, from “The idea of ​​‘Parkbak-i’, born from the evolution of ‘Bubble Wrap’ on August 8”

There is an unforgettable episode in Daisuke Terasawa's manga "Mr. Sushi King," which I was obsessed with reading when I was in high school.
While rolling out hundreds of kimbap rolls for delivery, the chef scolds me for making one poorly made roll.
“For the person who eats that one piece, that kimbap is everything!” There is a good chance that something like this will happen while you are working.
--- p.297, from “Learning the Basics of Kimchi Sushi from Mr. Sushi King on September 14th”

Pilot's Friction Ball, familiar as an "erasable ballpoint pen," has become a must-have for many people.
I've been using it for a long time too.
I remember when I was a child and tried to erase the words I wrote on paper with a ballpoint pen with an eraser, my mother taught me, “You can’t erase with a ballpoint pen.”
Because it was an idea that broke the common sense that has been ingrained in our minds since childhood, that is, “Once you use a ballpoint pen, you can’t erase it,” people must have exclaimed “I want one!” with excited hearts.
--- p.335, from “Two Common Sense Changed by Friction Ball on October 20th”

I've introduced a method of thinking called "idea tail biting," and I've been using it in my work, such as planning and development, and recommending it to others.
First, if there is a topic you want to think of ideas for, don't think of anything and play a word game alone.
Write down the ideas that come to mind on paper, using the words that will come next as hints.
Let me give you a simple example.
When thinking about what to do with your family on holidays, you might think of a word chain game like this: Ringo (apple) → Gorilla (gorilla) → Ratpa (trumpet)... and so on.
--- p.362, from “The Best Idea Generation Method of November 15: ‘Biting the Tail of Ideas’”

For the Lunar New Year in 2022, our company developed a product called "Omamoyashi" and sold it for a limited time.
This is a miscellaneous item that contains an extremely realistic bean sprout (moyashi) figure in a case that holds an omamori (talisman).
I grew up with a very thin body, and my parents and classmates told me I looked like a bean sprout.
At the time, I was sad, but when I grew up and did some research, I found out that bean sprouts have many characteristics that indicate good omens.

--- p.389, from “The Real Reason for Developing the Bean Sprout Figure on December 10th”