Books about Shintaro from Amazon.com

Hello Kitty is Japan's brilliant answer to Disney's Mickey Mouse phenomenon in the U.S. This book explains how Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty, turned a cute cartoon cat into a multi-billion dollar global commodity. Hello Kitty merchandise helped Sanrio generate nearly $1 billion in revenue in 2002 partly through licensing agreements with more than 500 companies in Japan and hundreds more overseas. The distinct face of Hello Kitty is now plastered on 22,000 different products and sold in about 40 countries.

Sanrio's biggest success is its ability to create products that appeal not only to children, but women in their 20s and 30s around the world. That's why Kitty adorns not only bedspreads, backpacks and notebooks, but mobile phones, toasters and even cars. The book shows why Hello Kitty products are one of Japan's hottest exports and how Sanrio successfully globalized its “golden egg.”

In telling that story, this book shows how one company bucked the odds and turned a cute cat cartoon character into a ferocious business plan. Readers will learn about how and why the Hello Kitty brand clicked with kids and adults alike and how it continues to compete internationally with the likes of Disney and Warner Brothers..
Price: $14.34 [Notify me when price goes down.]

All the birds can't fly in the airshow because Mr. Eagle won't let them. But Thomas Raccoon will not give up. He is determined to get the big bird's approval A terrific story with outstanding illustrations!.
Price: $15.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

At first sight, it appears brand new, pure Tokyo pop. But The Japanese Experience: Inevitable reveals far more than the successful cloning of morphed manga motifs onto stretched canvas and museum walls. It represents eight positions in contemporary Japanese art and scrutinizes their complex visual vocabulary, noting references to Japanese and Western art traditions as frequently as the borrowing of mass culture motifs from the realms of manga and anime. Takashi Murakami's MR. DOB questions the place of contemporary art in our global society; Aya Takano's glowing watercolors combine Japanese sensitivity, issues of female identity, and sci-fi; Masahiko Kuwahara's mutant animals provide shades of softness and mysterious openness, and Yoshitomo Nara's reworking of historical Japanese woodcuts disturbs the floating world. Not only are the artists' visual repertoires new and surprising, but their creative methods and strategies help conquer a public that is mostly untouched by contemporary art. Published in association with the Ursula Blickle Foundation..
Price: $19.53 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A provocative dialogue, transcribed from meetings and written exchanges between Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Japanese politician-author Shintaro Ishihara, The Voice of Asia gives unprecedented insight into what Ishihara calls "the paramount reality of the mid-1990s - the retreat of the West and the increasing dynamism of Asia". The book finds the pair in fundamental agreement. Mahathir claims that Japan provided the model for Malaysia's development; Ishihara urges his country to leave off deferring to the United States and return to the Asian fold. Can the West take up this challenge, or is the Asian era really at hand? Here is a world-view as foreign to the Western reader as most Western values are to Asians. But as the balance of economic power slips inexorably toward the East, there is a greater need than ever to come to grips with the emerging Asian ethos. The Voice of Asia is the best briefing available..
Price: $7.66 [Notify me when price goes down.]