In 2005, researchers at Japan’s National Food Research Institute, among them Hayakawa Fumiyo, published a collection of Japanese texture terms. Their list holds 445 words. Among them are sakusaku, light and crisp, mochimochi, soft and springy, shakishaki, crunchy and fresh, and paripari, crackling crisp.
The researchers also report that words for stickiness and springiness, such as nebaneba and mochimochi, are common in the vocabulary of consumers.
The chemist Ikeda Kikunae found that the taste of kombu broth comes from glutamic acid, an amino acid. He invented a way to make an umami seasoning from it and took out a patent. In May 1909, the seasoning went on sale under the name Ajinomoto.
In March 1989, departure melodies were introduced at JR Shinjuku and Shibuya stations in Tokyo. They replaced the loud bells that had rung before a train left.
When a customer enters a FamilyMart, a short chime plays. In January 2016, the news site Internet Watch reported that this chime had been given an official title: Daiseikyō, A Great Success.
A suikinkutsu, water koto cave, is a jar with a hole in its base, buried upside down in a garden. Water drips into it, and the sound echoes inside the jar. Shinagawa City says its history is said to go back to the Edo period. Some sources credit its invention to the tea master and garden designer Kobori Enshū, but this too is only said.
The corridors of the Ninomaru Palace at Nijō Castle in Kyoto squeak when someone walks on them. The floor is known as uguisubari, nightingale floor. The sound comes from metal clamps that rub beneath the boards.
It is often said that the floor was a kind of alarm, so that an intruder would be heard at once. No official source found for this post confirms that the sound was intended.
In In’ei raisan, In Praise of Shadows, the novelist Tanizaki Jun’ichirō writes that he likes, above all, the weight of the soup felt in the palm when he holds a bowl of clear soup, and its lukewarm warmth. He also describes listening to a faint hum from the bowl, like the sound of a distant insect.
Kansei kōgaku, kansei engineering, is defined by Nagamachi Mitsuo, professor emeritus of Hiroshima University, as a technology that turns kansei, human feeling and sensibility, into concrete design content. The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering was founded in 1998.
On September 1, 1989, Mazda launched the Eunos Roadster, an open two-seat sports car. Its developers set the keyword jinba ittai, rider and horse as one, and aimed for a car that responds honestly to the driver.
The engine and transmission came from Mazda’s mass-produced units. They were greatly improved to give a pleasant shift feel.
Honda paid attention to the sound of the closing door on its kei car, the N-ONE. In a statement quoted by the news site Norimono News, Honda recalls the saying ii kuruma wa doa no shimaru oto ga chigau, a good car has a different door-closing sound. It adds that the sound may also be a barometer of quality.
Another Honda statement in the same article says that even in a kei car, the sound of the door is one of the points that affect customer satisfaction, although it cannot be expressed in numbers.