MUJI or Mujirushi Ryohin in Japanese, translates as “no brand, quality goods.” Since its inception, the brand has focused on creating quality products that are truly essential for one’s life without the unnecessary complexity. MUJI recently launched it’s “What is MUJI?” Exhibit – an honest display of the brand’s mission and philosophy.
In the year 1980, MUJI was founded with an eye for creating low-cost, good quality products with its origin, a thorough rationalization of the manufacturing process. In creating products, MUJI reexamined their production process through three lenses: material selection, streamlining process, and packaging simplification.
Material selection
For Japanese brand MUJI, choosing the best materials to create their products is of utmost importance. A considerable amount of attention is given to their selection process. MUJI travels around the world to source out the most suitable raw materials with quality as its deciding criteria.
Streamlining process
The manufacturing process of how each product is produced is subject to careful scrutiny at MUJI. Unnecessary processes that have no bearing on a product’s quality such as sorting, sizing, and polishing, are eliminated. Products that do not meet certain standards of size are turned into products for sale. Through this, MUJI is able to focus on true quality and is able to reduce costs and eliminate waste.
Packaging simplification
When packaging products, the brand highlights its natural color and shape instead of embellishing it. For this reason, MUJI uses bulk packaging and places products in plain, uniform containers. This approach helps conserve resource and reduce waste. Thus, all MUJI products appear in simple packaging that bears only product information and the retail price – another testament to the brand’s simplicity.
These three lenses are the core principles of MUJI which remain unchanged to this day. This concept was built from the beginning to deliver goods and services with both the consumer and manufacturer in mind to realize MUJI’s vision of creating simple and pleasant lifestyles. The essence of their products lies in its simplicity, flexibility, and modesty to fit different lifestyles and individual preferences. Like empty vessels, its simplicity and emptiness offer the ultimate universality by embracing the feelings and thoughts of all people. MUJI has been credited with being “resource-saving,” “low-priced”, “simple,” “anonymous,” and “nature-oriented.” Without placing a disproportionate emphasis on any one of these varied assessments, MUJI aims to live up to all. Today, there are more than 800 MUJI stores around the world, carrying more than 7,500 items ranging from clothing and household goods to food and even houses. But the foundation of its philosophy has not changed since the day it was conceived. MUJI continues to orient itself to the basis and universality of daily life.
Today, there are MUJI stores located in 28 countries/regions including Japan. It has been more than a quarter of a century since 1991 when MUJI started its global expansion from London and Hong Kong.
In the Philippines, MUJI has branches at C1 Bonifacio High Street, Greenbelt 3, Power Plant Mall at Rockwell, and Shangri-La Plaza East Wing.