, also known as , is a Japanese company run by Hobonichi Co., Ltd. that designs and produces various daily life products such as T-shirts and notebooks. The company was founded by copywriter

Shigesato Itoi is a Japanese copywriter, essayist, lyricist, game designer, and actor. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website and company '' Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun'' ("Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper"). He is best known outside Japan for his work on Nintend ...

(a.k.a. "Darling") on June 6, 1998, and it was originally his idea to call the site "Almost Daily" to give it more leeway, as he thought that daily updates would be too much mental pressure and content-wise, but since the site's launch at midnight (

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

time), some content has been updated every day. Originally started as Itoi's personal website, it has grown into one of the most profitable websites in Japan by focusing on sales of goods. In 2012, the website won the Porter Prize. The site currently receives about 1.5 million page views a day, making it the largest personal website in Japan. Annual sales reached 3 billion yen in 2014, despite the fact that the company has not sold any membership-based paid content or advertising space to date.

Content

Today's Darling

A "sort of essay" written daily by Itoi himself that can be found on the top page. Since the opening of the site, he has continued to write every day without a break. One of the main features of the site is that the past essays written so far are not archived, and if they are not read that day, the data will be updated the next day. However, books containing past essays, etc. are available for purchase.

Interviews

Itoi invites guests for conversations, and is visited by people from diverse industries. Some examples of people who have appeared in the past include:

Sanma Akashiya is a Japanese comedian, TV presenter, radio personality and actor most commonly known as Sanma-san. His real name is . His talent agency is Yoshimoto Kogyo and his shishô (master) back when he studied '' rakugo'' is Shōfukutei Matsunosuke. ...

, Hiroshi Aramata,

Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. He played nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), where he began hi ...

, Hiromi Kawakami,

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto i ...

, Momoko Sakura, Kinichi Hagimoto, Toshio Suzuki,

Shuntarō Tanikawa (born December 15, 1931 in Tokyo City, Japan) is a Japanese poet and translator. He is one of the most widely read and highly regarded of living Japanese poets, both in Japan and abroad, and a frequent subject of speculations regarding the Nob ...

Tamori , known by his stage name (an anagram of his surname), is a Japanese television celebrity. Known for his trademark dark sunglasses, Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan along with Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takesh ...

, Shōfukutei Tsurube II, Eikichi Yazawa, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Tatsunori Hara, Kiyoshi Nakahata, So Taguchi, Dai Tamesue, etc.

Sale of goods

The company develops and sells a wide range of merchandise in cooperation with major manufacturers, including T-shirts, calendars, bound notebooks, and clay pots. This is Hobonichi's main source of revenue. In particular, the original bound notebooks called '' Hobonichi Techo'' have become popular goods that have been perfected with the input of users since the early days of the site, and are still being sold as "evolving notebooks" with improvements made every year. In addition, a number of books born from the site's content have been published, and even a ''Hobonichi Credit Card'' was issued in cooperation with DC Card (currently no longer being issued). In addition, the company has collaborated with

Nissin Foods Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. is a Japanese food company that specializes in the production and sale of convenience food and instant noodles. History Founding and early years The company was established in Japan on September 1, 1948, by ...

and

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. ...

to produce and sell an official Hobonichi cup noodle called .

Treetop Secret Base

Hobonichi has a close relationship with Nintendo due to its connection with Itoi's ''MOTHER'' series of games, and has been running a series of articles on Nintendo called since its establishment. In 2006, Nintendo gave priority to providing information on ''

Mother 3 is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third entry in the ''Mother'' series. The game follows Lucas, a young boy with psychic abilitie ...

'' to Hobonichi, and Hobonichi staff members were in charge of the pages on Nintendo's homepage. In addition, the former president of Nintendo,

Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contributor in broadening the appe ...

, had a personal relationship with Itoi and held the title of "IT manager" at Hobonichi since its inception, and in 2007 was still the IT manager for the site despite also leading Nintendo. This was due to Iwata's great personal efforts as a partner in launching the website and making it online within Itoi's office (Iwata was working at

HAL Laboratory formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a seco ...

when the website was launched). Conversations with Iwata and

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he i ...

were also held on a regular basis.

Events

In addition to the development on the website, various events were also managed. Major events include a

rakugo is a form of '' yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a lon ...

performance ''Kesennuma Samma Yose'' with Shinosuke Tatekawa, a baseball game at

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of ...

, and ''Hatarakitai Exhibition,'' a commemorative event for the 15th anniversary of the site's launch. The exhibition was held at Parco Museum in Shibuya from June 6 to 17, 2013, at Umeda Loft from December 28, 2013 to January 19, 2014, and at Fukuoka Parco from April 25 to May 11, 2014. In addition, ''Seikatsu no Tanoshimi Exhibition,'' a collection of products carefully selected by Hobonichi employees, was held at Roppongi Hills in March and November 2017, at Yebisu Garden Place in June 2018, at Hankyu Umeda Main Store in October of the same year, and at

Marunouchi Marunouchi () is a commercial district of Tokyo located in Chiyoda between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning "inside the circle", derives from its location within the palace's outer moat. It is also Tokyo's financial di ...

in April 2019.

Miscellaneous

On August 2, 2014, the company opened its directly managed store and gallery (event space), TOBICHI, near its headquarters, followed by its annex, TOBICHI 2, on February 22, 2015, and its western Japan base in Kyoto ("TOBICHI Kyoto")TOBICHI 京都について
- Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun on June 6, 2017.

References

External links

* ** ** ** ** * * {{Official website, https://www.1101.com/app/, Hobonichi App Summary Manufacturing companies of Japan Nintendo Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 1998 Manufacturing companies established in 1998