—I would say that Japanese culture is particularly attuned to the appreciation of beauty because it springs from an island nation with limited natural resources. Japan has always had to get by with less wood, metal, fuel and so on, so its culture has evolved around how to make less into more.
John Maeda is the president of the Rhode Island School of Design and author of “The Laws of Simplicity.”
source: Beauty and the Bento Box, The New York Times
