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Writing · 07 notes and commentaries

Journal

Field notes from our visits, and commentary published in other venues.

Field notes

03 notes · one per visit

Written on site, numbered with the visit, sent by email and used in preparing the papers. Notes are published when visits happen, not on a schedule.

Upholstery and frame lines in a Japanese furniture plant: workers assembling a leather sofa and wooden chair frames under hanging line signs
Latest note · NC 0413
Field noteCorporate statecraftJapan

Prospering While Shrinking: A Japanese Idea What Japan’s factories and cities reveal about renewing prosperity as populations shrink and industries change.

Last September, I brought my research to Japan. Midway through the journey, Hiroshi Kato, vice president of Karimoku, offered a simple yet radical observation: a tree might take fifty or a hundred years to grow. He wanted the furniture made from it to last just as long.

2026.10.11Aichi, Fujisawa, Hamamatsu, TokyoM.M.
Read the note →TAV 13.01Furniture plant, lines 2 and 3. Japan.
NC 0412A detail from the Frederick Terman papers, Stanford University LibrariesReconsidering campanilismo: a Stanford lesson for ItalyFrom bell towers to steeples of excellence: how local universities can turn regional identity into global strength.Stanford, California2026.01.208 min readNC 0410The covered public escalator in BellunoItaly’s future: a neo-industrial renaissance in the making?Amid ageing industries and the advance of AI, Italian regions from Belluno to Marche are sketching a new industrial blueprint. Can they pull it off?Belluno, Veneto2025.10.087 min read

Commentary

Our research, published in other venues

Short pieces written for publications edited by others. They present the research itself, not summaries or announcements of the papers.

Notes from the field, by email

One note per visit. There is no fixed schedule; notes are sent when visits happen.