Yokota: With programming education starting in elementary school, some children and their parents want to use Koropyuta as an opportunity to learn about programming and create simple games. That's why we're looking into whether we can create and share games using open source programming software that requires hard work but doesn't require such advanced skills.
A new idea born from the collaboration of an "analog" and a "digital" development team.
Editor: Could you tell us how you developed Koropyuta?
Yokota: For more than 10 years, we have been planning and selling stationery and calendars under the Replug brand of stationery and miscellaneous goods. One of the reasons for developing this product was that we wanted to create something new by combining the technology we had cultivated for "analog products that can be touched by hand" with digital technology. Originally, we were a company specializing in advertising design, but we also had employees in charge of digital development, such as planning websites and applications. So the team that had been developing analog products for Replug and the team that had been involved in the digital field came together to start development.
Stylish Replug Stationery
Nagashima: The idea for Koropyuta came from the idea of using words and combining them with wooden items that can be touched by hand, which has the opposite image of digital. We started with the question, "What can we do? So we just tried to make whatever we liked. For example, I wanted to make the beauty of the hiragana typeface more widely known, and the development team on the digital side wanted people to feel more familiar with digital technology.
Editor: So that's why you were able to create something so unique.
Yokota: The customers who use Replag products are men and women in their 30s and 40s who are particular about their lifestyles. Many of them have small children of the right age, so we thought it would be a good idea to propose products that would be suitable for them. That's why we created a new line of brands called "Replug Kids". Our ideal is to develop children's creativity so that they can have a better future, and to create products that nurture their "zest for life," to put it mildly.
