During the asset price bubble that shaped Japan’s economy in the ’80s, copywriting became quite a popular practice, and this was the climate in which Itoi rose to prominence. What is copywriting, you may say? Well, the wide-ranging task of the copywriter may involve the creation of catchphrases and slogans or the conception of advertising campaign, for a variety of possible purposes.

The famous ad campaign that launched his career He thus decided to find a job and, in 1971, he went back to school in the hope of becoming familiar with a rather novel activity: copywriting. This is when he realized he didn’t really have a plan in life, apart maybe from becoming a hat designer. He took part in the student movement that shook the political landscape of Japan back then, but he ended giving up his studies altogether. Towards the end of the 60s, he entered the Faculty of Letters of the prestigious Hosei University of Tokyo. During a cultural festival, he even went as far as to perform a play in which he mirrored anti-Vietnam War Buddhist self-immolations of the era. His interest in literature grew along the years he spent in high school, and he became a fan of Edogawa Ranpo’s Western-influenced mystery novels as well as the Tenjou Sajiki troupe’s avant-garde plays. This didn’t stop him from acting like a bankara (think “ouendan” meets punk) from time to time. As early as he got in high school, he showed interest in essays such as those of Morio Kita. Just like most Japanese kids, he still found a way to let it off through reading manga, and he actually once contemplated becoming a mangaka. He couldn’t see his mother anymore, and his father, a legal adviser, was such an absent man that Itoi’s upbringing was actually handled by his grandmother. He wasn’t the first child, as he had an older sister, but his parents divorced not long after his birth. Shigesato Itoi’s childhood was a bit complicated, due to his troubled family background. Shigesato Itoi in his office after the release of MOTHER3

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