Yokoyama Takeshi first encountered Itoki at a factory near his hometown. He has been familiar with the company since he was a child and is currently involved in chair development. At the manufacturing site, there was a sense of pride and inquisitiveness displayed in each position.

"Manufacturing seems interesting" - that was the beginning of my pure interest. As I continued my job search, this changed into a conviction that "I want to make things that are close to people's lives", and I ended up in the development department at Itoki. Since joining the company, I have been involved in the development of chairs.

Typically, the development of a chair involves four people: those responsible for the back, seat, and armrests, as well as a "theme leader" who oversees the entire project.

He was in charge of the seat in the development of the "QuA Chair" and the back in the "nort Chair."

The Note Chair, which is particularly rich in design, has a distinctive back. Since the impression of the chair is greatly influenced by the fine details such as seams and wrinkles, no compromises are allowed.

Also, by being in charge of each department alone, the responsibility increases, but so does the learning and rewarding work. Currently, I am aiming to become a "theme leader" and am accumulating experience through each process.

When my boss checked the prototype I had made, he said, "You can do better than this." At that moment, I realized that I had unconsciously thought, "This is good enough."

To improve a design, it is essential to have the ability to identify issues and come up with ideas to solve them. Is the design really optimal? Have you exhausted all your ingenuity? No matter how much you think about it, sometimes you just can't come up with a good idea.
But don't give up and keep thinking. Then, all of a sudden, you might find a completely different breakthrough.

When we hit a dead end, we consult with our team members and ask for their opinions. We exchange opinions frankly across generations, and because everyone is serious about manufacturing, we have an environment where we can improve each other.
This kind of culture is also the source of quality manufacturing.

In the development stage, we not only consider quality, but also ease of manufacturing at the production site.

No matter how revolutionary a design may be, it is meaningless if it cannot be mass-produced.

That's why we value exchanging opinions with the production department.

In the development of the Note Chair, in order to realize the "stuffed" back, which is the chair's greatest feature, we exchanged opinions on both the design and production process, and repeatedly brushed up the design. What we felt at that time was that we both shared a common desire to "make something good."

It is precisely because of this that we continue to rack our brains and do our utmost, whether in the development department or the production department. As "Team Itoki," we are always striving to create quality products.

Three years after joining the company, Yokoyama has come to realize that "to make a good product, you need to see the whole picture." While it is a given that each part has an excellent design, even if each part is good, it does not necessarily mean that a good product will result.

That's why I want to become a "theme leader" who oversees the entire project, in order to create a "beautiful and functional product as a whole," rather than just its individual parts. To achieve this, I am currently gaining experience in designing each part, such as the seat, back, and armrests, and steadily accumulating knowledge.

And above all, ITOKI has brought many products to the world, and I would like to create a hit product that will one day make people say, "When you think of ITOKI, this is it!"

The pioneer of high-performance office chairs, the vertebra, was a huge hit because it offered unprecedented comfort.

Nort is a highly functional office chair suited to casual spaces, and its design reduces the impression of heaviness thanks to the fabric covering the resin frame on the back.

"The wide variety of options available in the Nort makes it useful in a variety of situations. I hope many people will sit on it," says Yokoyama.

Going forward, we will continue to reflect the needs of the times in our designs, and together with our in-house planning, design and development departments, we will pursue "ITOKI-style manufacturing" that we can be proud of around the world.