Feelin' Muji

Team Muji From left, Go Kimura, Nagamoto, Yoshida, Yusuke Koyama, Yasui and Hajime Ikeuchi.

JUN TAKAGI FOR TIME

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The brand also incorporates consumers and new talent into the design process. The Muji Award, now in its third year, took on the theme of "Found Muji" and invited designers worldwide to submit ideas that adapt existing products to fit a different lifestyle. Last year's winners included a customizable towel and a stackable clothes hanger. "We're still a fairly new team," says Masayuki Yoshida, World Muji product manager, who is responsible for coordinating with outside designers. New and young: the average age of a category manager is 30. But the concept of "no mark, quality goods," which is nearly as old, remains central. "What is foremost in the designers' thinking is how to get a reaction from consumers that is, 'Of course, it's Muji,' when they experience a product." Yasui says the task is to remind consumers of Muji and its quality, and the struggle is to find a balance between something of slightly better quality that appeals to people in their 50s at a price those in their 20s can afford.

This doesn't mean Muji isn't aiming for bigger profits; the team also creates high-end furniture. But Yasui doesn't see it as a contradiction with the Muji brand. "We think of what we want and why it doesn't exist. That's where we begin."