Born in Japan in 1979, Yota Kakuda moved to London in 2003, where he gained experience in design studios including Shin and Tomoko Azumi and Ross Lovegrove, and earned his MA at the Royal College of Art, Design Products under Ron Arad and Sir Kenneth Grange, on scholarship from the Japanese government. He returned to Tokyo in 2008 and joined MUJI as a product designer. In 2011 he established YOTA KAKUDA DESIGN in Tokyo, where he works in a variety of design fields, for both international and domestic clients. He obtained major design awards including the iF Design Award and Good Design Award, and was selected as one of the finalists for the Hublot Design Prize 2016, becoming the first ever nominee from Asia. Lecturer at Musashino Art University. Yota believes his works exist to make people slightly happier.