Morinosuke Kawaguchi is an innovation and competitive strategy consultant, futurist, author and designer. He is the founder and CEO of Morinoske Co. Ltd., a creative future laboratory based in Tokyo. He is the creator of the Morinoske Innovation Model and also of the concept of Gross National Talent and the Gross National Talent Index. As Japan’s foremost futurist, he serves as a strategy advisor to the Japanese government and to some of the world’s largest multinationals. These organizations adopted Morinosuke’s future forecasting book メガトレンド 2014-2023 and its fourth updated version, MEGATRENDS 2019-2028, as the base for their future strategy. This unique book analyzing and outlining the future in fifty megatrends across all industries, is probably the most expensive book by a single author on the Japanese market, retailing at 600,000 Yen a copy, or about 5440 US dollars.
Since 2014 he has been an advisor to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s National Strategy Headquarters. At first he was invited by the LDP’s Strategy HQ for his ideas on creating jobs and gaining foreign currency, two issues that are crucial for the Japanese government’s 2030 future strategy. Another project Morinosuke worked on is with the Education Ministry of Japan, contributing to the ministry’s guidelines and policy for all Japanese scientists and academics on what to research.
He has also been engaged in the Japanese government’s science and technology policy-planning process while working with The National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), a national research institution under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
Morinosuke is an award-winning author whose books have been translated into four languages and they influence thinking and practice not only in Japan but in other countries as well. His seminal book: Geeky-Girly Innovation: A Japanese Subculturist’s Guide to Technology & Design was awarded the prestigious Nikkei BP BizTech Book Award 2008 in Japan, given to books that contribute to the advancement and development of technology and management. In Taiwan, it was listed as number one among the top ten “Great Technology Management Books 2010”. That same year Taiwan’s Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs and South Korea’s KITECH, the Korea Institute if Industrial Technology, studied the book to be applied in their countries’ technology and innovation strategies.
Since 2013 he has been an advisor to the 日経BP未来研究所, Nikkei BP Mirai Kenkyujou, the Future Laboratory of Nikkei BP, Japan’s biggest publisher of business and technology magazines and books.
Until 2013 for eleven years, he worked for the global strategy consulting firm, Arthur D. Little, (Japan) Inc. where he was Principal & Associate Director. He is the inventor of the Morinoske Subculture-driven Innovation Model, which he applies to both his consulting work and educational activity. In this fundamental concept, he established the importance of subculture as a seed for innovation, defined its parameters and is proving that it is indeed a value creating, viable solution for both industrial and national strategies.
