Ray Masaki, 32, is a Japanese American graphic designer who studied and worked in New York before moving to Tokyo in 2017. Last year, he self-published a book addressing the institutional biases within Japan¡¯s design industry entitled ¡°Why is the salaryman carrying a surfboard?¡± He now runs his own studio, Ran.
1. Where did you grow up? I was born in New York and grew up between there and New Jersey.
2. How connected did you feel to Japan in those early years? I grew up in a pretty diverse area, but there weren¡¯t many Japanese people there. My mom would speak Japanese to me and I¡¯d usually respond in English, but my connection to Japanese culture was mostly through my grandparents sending me VHS tapes of ¡°Digimon¡± and ¡°Pokemon.¡± Through that I got into manga and anime.
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