Taro Yaguchi teaches a British girl how to fold origami at his origami studio in Tokyo’s Asakusa area on April 2, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Taro Yaguchi)(Kyodo)
NEW YORK (Kyodo) — A Japanese international patent attorney has turned the traditional art of origami into a commercial enterprise spanning the United States and Japan, positioning folded paper craft as both cultural export and global business.
Taro Yaguchi, who works as an international patent attorney handling patent applications, also describes himself as an “origami artist.”
The 58-year-old operates studios in New York and other locations, where he runs origami classes and sells related goods. He has said that commercial success will “serve as a model for promoting Japanese culture overseas.”
In a studio in Brooklyn, New York, a young girl visiting with her family picked up an origami piece displayed like a work of art, examining it with visible interest. On the wall of the studio hang dynamic pictograms depicting various sports, the same designs used on the official social media accounts of the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021.
Yaguchi’s path to origami entrepreneurship was shaped by his work in intellectual property and cross-border technology transfer.
Having managed patent offices in both Japan and the United States, and worked on applications aimed at translating Japanese university technologies into U.S. businesses, Yaguchi became increasingly aware of the challenges Japanese innovation faced in global competition, particularly in science and technology.
Taro Yaguchi gives an origami performance at a garden show on the outskirts of London on July 3, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Taro Yaguchi)(Kyodo)
About 15 years ago, during this period of international work and travel, he began to focus on origami as an area where Japan held a distinctive advantage. He came to see it as a globally recognized cultural practice with existing demand, but with what he viewed as an underdeveloped commercial model.
He also spent significant time practicing origami while traveling between Japan and the United States, gradually refining his techniques. Over time, he concluded that origami could be positioned not only as a hobby or children’s activity, but as a structured discipline, similar to martial arts such as judo or kendo.
From that concept, he began systematizing instruction methods. He developed a structured curriculum for learning origami and created an app for tablet devices to support instruction. He organized folding techniques into six difficulty levels, ranging from grade one to grade six, to provide a clear progression for learners.
Yaguchi also moved into product development and commercialization. He created and sold origami paper printed with vehicle designs, a product line that became commercially successful, selling more than 1 million copies. Drawing on his background in intellectual property, he obtained design rights in both Japan and the United States to protect his work.
He has also built a brand known as “Taro’s Origami,” which uses imported Japanese paper. In addition to classes and product sales, he organizes birthday parties and corporate events featuring origami activities.
His work has attracted requests from global companies and brands, including International Business Machines Corp. and Louis Vuitton, for use in exhibitions and advertising projects.
While origami is often seen in Japan as a children’s pastime, its reception abroad has been different, with greater emphasis on its artistic and educational value.
“People overseas are amazed that something like this can be created from a square piece of paper,” Yaguchi said.
To demonstrate the transformation of paper into art, Yaguchi also performs using a large 3-meter-square sheet of origami paper, often while dressed in traditional Japanese clothing.
Yaguchi’s operations have expanded beyond New York. He currently runs additional studios in Philadelphia, where he is based, as well as in Asakusa in Tokyo. He is also preparing to expand his business to London.
“There are many cool aspects of Japanese culture that Japanese people tend to overlook, such as washi paper and wrapping. I believe we can spread them to the world by commercializing them,” Yaguchi said.
(By Jun Shimazaki)