Speaking Our Language

Landing in Tokyo, Speaking Our Language, the moment four paths converged, and the words that would shape our future.

Touchdown, HND

The rain had stopped by the time Leila stepped out of Haneda Airport. Her first breath of Tokyo air carried the faint scent of damp concrete and spring blossoms.

Waiting at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden was Ana, her wife Megumi, and their toddler, the youngest in the familia, smiling with the kind of quiet intensity that says, This is the start of something.

Leila and Ana sat together on the fresh grass, surrounded by the garden’s open majesty, sharing the awkward yet warm laughter of people who had spoken for hours online but never sat face-to-face.

And yet, they were all in.

In the Atelier

Later that week, they gathered in divka’s Tokyo atelier for the First Principles envisioning workshop. Bolts of fabric leaned in careful disorder against the walls. A half-finished coat floated on a dress form like a thought made visible.

“We can make clothes for bodies we’ve never dressed before, without compromise,” Taka stated, his voice was calm, but an edge of challenge ran through it, to himself, and all of them.

In Ana’s true former IDEO leadership style, they stripped the problem to its essentials: why, for whom, and how they were designing. Slowly, through debate, passion, and love, a well-researched TAM and BOM structure hypothesis unfolded. Yellow post-its covered the concrete walls in a mosaic of ideas.

Sketches were spread across the massive wooden table. The conversation turned, quickly and naturally, to language.

What words would they use to describe their work and the people they design for? Just as importantly, what words would they refuse?

No “O” words. No medicalized terms. No euphemisms that hide size in shame.

We worked to determine Japanese equivalents for the English words we use in the Fat Liberation space. By the end of the session, three Japanese words were written, one by one, in black ink on post-its, the outcome of a long, careful process of discussion in both Japanese and English:

• 豊満 (ほうまん) / Larger Bodies

• 大きい (おおきい) / Plus Size

• ぽっちゃり / Pochari

Words that could be spoken with pride, like how we’ve embraced “fat”, worn like a favorite garment, like fat liberation meets daily armor, empowerment.

Ana looked around the table.

“This,” she said, tapping the paper, “is part of the design. These words are the fabric, too.”

They all understood. This wasn’t just about making clothes. It was about making a language of belonging.