MUJI will hold an open talk event between its president Masaaki Kanai and UCLA professor Hitoshi Abe on Wednesday, May 28, at Venice Arts in Los Angeles. This event marks the opening of MUJI’s second Los Angeles location, opening on Friday, June 20, 2014, located at 2936 Main Street in Santa Monica. The talk will be a chance to hear the thoughts of two speakers who were raised in the context of Japanese aesthetics but who are currently operating on the international stage: Abe, an architect active for many years in Los Angeles, and MUJI (represented by Kanai), which has been active globally for many years but is a recent arrival to southern California. |
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 Kanai is president of Ryohin Keikaku (MUJI). He has worked at MUJI since its founding. His work primarily involved product development and merchandising in the company’s housewares division, one of MU- JI’s three main product divsions. He entered Ryohin Keikaku in 1993 but was involved with the brand earlier through his work at Seiyu Stores, as MUJI was originally a private label company of Seiyu. He was appointed president in 2008. |
 Abe is chair of UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design. As an architect, he worked at the Los Angeles office of Coop Himmel- blau from 1988 and founded his own firm in 1992. His projects span small homes, bars and restaurants to museums and stadiums. He was the subject of two monographs, published by Toto (2005) and Phaidon (2009). As an educator, he was appointed professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design in 2007. |
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The name MUJI derives from the company’s original name in Japanese: mujirushi ryohin, meaning “no brand markings, good products.” MUJI started in Japan in 1980 and now has nearly 400 stores domestically. It opened its first store outside Japan in London in 1991, adding over 200 since then. MUJI Santa Monica will be its ninth in the US (five in and around New York City and four in California). |
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