MONTHLY NEWS
February 2003

Young Inventor with a New Idea for Desks

Nine-year-old Sayuri Itoda loves to draw. In the summer of 2001, she came up with a bright idea - a desk with the top surface made of a whiteboard. This way, you can draw directly onto the desk with felt pens, over and over again. She entered her idea to a design contest sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Asahikawa City, on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, where she lived.

Sayuri's design won the top prize in the Asahikawa Dream Contest, and Wako Inc., a local furniture maker, decided to add the Whiteboard Desk to its product lineup. Wako began marketing the desks this year, and has already sold 20 of them.

"I didn't think my design was all that good. But when I saw the actual product, I thought it was great," said Sayuri. In the Asahikawa Dream Contest, local manufacturers cooperate to turn the top 16 design ideas into real objects. Sayuri worked with Wako employees to bring her idea to life. "Making the adjustable top board was the difficult part," she said. Today Sayuri enjoys drawing on the Whiteboard Desk she designed herself.

The Asahikawa Dream Contest aims to show children how ideas become real products, said Tsuyoshi Yoshimoto of the Asahikawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The contest also offers an opportunity for local manufacturers to demonstrate their craftsmanship and technology. "They don't compromise on quality just because the designer is a child."

There are two parts to the contest. The Design Section is for drawings of useful or enjoyable objects, and the Invention Section is for drawings of ideas and products for the future. The top prize winner for design in the 2002 contest was fifth grader Yuki Miura, for a ladybug-shaped searchlight. "The idea suddenly hit me at school one day. It's so incredible to see your design made into a real-life object," said Yuki.

The top prize for invention went to first grader Nobuki Uenishi for his garbage-swallowing whale. Nobuki's giant mechanical whale travels the ocean, swallowing garbage instead of fish, and spewing out building blocks. "The idea was to recycle garbage," said Nobuki, who spent "about 48 hours" putting his idea on paper.

There were many other imaginative ideas, like the Sliding Staircase that turns into a slide on the way down, or the Animal Hat that lets you communicate with the animal of your choice. If you had a Whiteboard Desk to draw on, you might come up with a great idea too!

Photos: (Top) Sayuri (right) draws on the desk she designed (Wako Inc.); (second) Yuki Miura with her ladybug searchlight design (Miura Family); (third) Nobuyuki Uenishi's garbage-swallowing whale design; (bottom) Nobuyuki Uenishi (both Uenishi Family).