Kaz Shiomi, 47, has to be one of Japan’s most unapologetically colorful businesswomen. The Osakan designer’s bubbly personality is even brighter than her aesthetic and it’s reflected in the vivid wooden toys she produces under her toy brand kiko+ & gg* under her company Kukkia.
1. What excites you the most about 2025? This is going to be a great year. We have the Osaka Expo coming up, which I am excited for. Along with continuing to run my own company, I will also become the creative director of my husband’s lifestyle company, Ideaco, as he takes steps toward retirement in two years. I am also considering publishing a book.
2. What would your book be about? It would be about myself. I want to show people who are struggling or having a hard time how to live more freely, to color outside the lines. Japanese society can be a little narrow-minded, so I want to show there are different paths to the ones that are laid out by society.
