En la era digital, Japón ha convertido las agendas de papel en un fenómeno de masas gracias a una palabra: Hobonichi

The twelve chimes of New Year’s Eve are probably the clearest, most identifiable and precise symbol of a change of year; but in reality the transition is much more gradual, it extends beyond December 31 and comes accompanied by its own rituals. New year means new calendar. new purposes (or not). Resetting the counter to zero in many aspects, such as releases in the company. And also, of course, a change of agenda. When more and more people, inside and outside of Japan, have to ask this last question, one word comes to mind:

Hobonichi.

What are Hobonichi? Japanese diaries. Special Japanese agendas, yes. So much so that if you take a look at some of the examples that circulate through the networks Chances are, they remind you of anything but an agenda. That identity has allowed its creators three things.

First, stand out in the hyper-saturated market for personal notebooks. Second, sell millions of copies across half the planet at high prices. And third and most surprising, to promote a product whose functions today can easily cover any smartphone.

The exact name of the agendas is Hobonichi Techo, the designs and manufactures a Japanese company with the same name (Hobonichi Co.) and today they boast of having users spread across a hundred countries and having sold more than ten million of copies. Only from the 2023 edition were some 820,000 copies.

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and

And what are they like? There is actually no single Hobonichi agenda. When they launched, in 2001the company created a model that has become known as ‘Original’with a page reserved for each day of the week in A6; but since then it has been trying new formats. Today its catalog is completed with models such as ‘Cousin’, ‘HON’, ‘Weeks’ either ‘Planner’. The sizes of the pages change, the space that the manufacturer leaves to write on them or the possibility of removing and putting on covers with different designs.

What differences are there? In addition to decoration or purely aesthetic issues, a key issue may also vary between one model and another: the organizational approach. That is, how the user wants to organize their tasks.

The Hobonichi Techo ‘Original’ has a page for each day of the year, but that is not the case in all versions. The ‘Weeks’ They have a completely different design: if you open it at random you will see that on the left page there is a planning weekly and on the right a space for the day’s notes.

Agendas for five years. In their catalog there is even a model, the ‘5-Yer Ceiling’designed for people who want to plan five years ahead or check how life evolves. As? If we open it at random we will see that on the right page there is ample space for notes, but on the left we find the day of the week in fivefold: a box, let’s say, is for January 3, 2025, the one immediately below for January 3, 2026 and the remaining three for the same day in 2027, 2028 and 2029.

Image 01
Image 01

Well, nice, cheap. On its website the company presume of using special paper, a binding sewn with thread and its careful design, but buying a Hobonichi does not come cheap. Especially if we want the most elaborate ones. The original Hobonichi Techo in English edition costs on the manufacturer’s website 25 euros and 43 the ‘Cousin’ in English with A5 pages. The range is, however, very wide and also includes products with personalized covers that can make the diary easily spend 100 euros.

Although they can be found on portals such as amazon and versions on AliExpressthose who want to take a look at them and buy them in Spain will not have it easy. On the Honobichi website it is identified a single physical point of sale throughout the country, Papelería Entropía, in Barcelona. It is not strange in the brand. In France, the Netherlands, Germany or Italy it also indicates a single point of sale. On its website Entropía has an extensive catalogin variety and in prices: they range from 33 to 225 euros that a leather ‘Cousin A5’ costs. The range of prices among tapas is also extensive.

What is special about them? Aesthetic issues aside, the Hobonichi Techo have a lot in common with the diaries that we can find in most stationery stores: squared sheets with different organization formats, phrases at the bottom of the page, calendars, more or less decorated and resistant covers… What they What has made them stand out is largely the community they have generated around them and the absolute freedom with which their owners use them.

That and the image promoted by the company itself, which presents its agendas as more than just time management and productivity improvement tools. Without giving up these uses, Hobonichi introduces others: he presents his notebooks as intimate spaces for creative expression and personal recreation.

The company insist in that their agendas are designed so that each user “uses them however they want, with total freedom.” “You can fill the pages with plans, notes and drafts, work and fun, anything about yourself, collecting it all in one book,” the company notes. The concept: one page, one day. On a professional or academic level, but also vital, recreational.

Use 10
Use 10

An agenda, a diary. And since an image is always better understood than a long written explanation, Hobonichi includes on its website a “user guide” Full of pages halfway between the professional agenda and the professional diary. There are notes, but also photos, drawings, diagrams, memories and graphs. The company itself encourages using its diaries for different uses: an album in which to paste memories, an account book, a space for recreation. fandoma journal or a parenting notebook.

The message is completed with two other hooks. The first is that of the agenda as an aesthetic complement. The Hobonichi are not simply presented as agendas, a functional notebook. In a way they are accessories, “ornaments.” In fact, it even allows you to buy personalized covers. The second is the fascination that Japanese culture arouses outside of Japan. The company is aware of and in some ways takes advantage of its roots. Among the designs of his agendas, he includes iconic references to his culture and manga.

Wear 13
Wear 13

Does it work for you? The figures are eloquent. The first Hobonichi Techo was launched in 2001 and since then the company has released editions in Japanese, English and Chinese and has taken its product to dozens of countries. In 2023 he boasted that in just five years its sales and international circulation had more than doubled and he calculated that the 2023 edition had been sold 820,000 copies. In social networks You can also find a good handful of mentions and images shared by users.

On TikTok the hashtag #hobonichi totals around 23,100 publications, #hobonichiweeks 9,000 and #hobonichitecho 6,700. The Japan America Society of Houston (JAS) remember that after selling millions of units in Japan, in 2012 the diaries released their first edition in English and have managed to expand to inspire tumblr pagesstar threads on reddit and gain ground in networks. In 2021, the JAS already had more than one million publications on the peculiar agendas alone on Instagram.

An agenda with history. Its creators have also known how to differentiate themselves as a company. Hobonichi is not presented as the product of a conventional company, but as a personal creation Shigesato Itoian essayist and designer who is behind Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun. It also boasts that it has become what it is today by following the advice of users.

In an increasingly digital world and in which there is no longer a smartphone capable of more than covering the functions of any paper agenda, Hobonichi has managed to do something difficult: value what is printed, what is physical, connecting with the “ceiling culture” from Japan, focused precisely on the pleasure of documenting and planning life. As remember from JASits approach largely relies on an old Buddhist proverb: “Every day is good.”

Images | Doing (Flickr) 1, 2 and 3 and Hobonichi Roof

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