A conversation with Troublemakers founders Yuto Miyamoto and Manami Inoue

Troublemakers is a magazine about society’s misfits. At least from the Japanese point of view. A bilingual, English/Japanese magazine, Troublemakers came about as a way to showcase people who were different, who stayed true to themselves, or about the long road those people had taken to self-acceptance.

The founders, editor Yuto Miyamoto and art director Manami Inoue, were inspired by a notion that Japanese culture perhaps did not value those who strayed too far from the herd.

The magazine has been a success not just in Japan but globally, and perhaps mirrors a trend we see in streaming, for example, of a general public acceptance of universal stories from different places—gengo nanté kinishee ni. Think, especially, of the success of Japanese television and movies like Shogun or Tokyo Vice or Godzilla Minus One. Of Japanese Pop and anime and food. It’s an endless list.

But Troublemakers is more than just a cultural document. It is proof of something shared, a commonality of human experience that exists everywhere. Speaking to Yuto and Manami, you sense a desire—and an invitation—to connect. With everyone. And that’s, ultimately, what Troublemakers tries to do.

Arjun Basu: Thank you for joining us from Japan. I think this is the furthest we’ve traveled so far for this podcast. So tell me Yuto, we’ll start with you. Tell me how you came to create Troublemakers. What did you do in your past that led you to this?

Yuto Miyamoto: Okay. How far should I go back?

Arjun Basu: You don’t have to tell us how you were born or anything like that, but…

Yuto Miyamoto: Okay. I started my career as an editor at Wired Japan. So I studied biology and journalism. So I was super lucky that I started that great career. So then I quit the job after working there for three years. And since then I’ve been working as a freelancer. So I was always a magazine lover, but I didn’t have any specific topic or theme that I felt I had to cover by myself until I came across the word “troublemaker.” So it all began with the title: Troublemakers.

Arjun Basu: Yeah. So you say that in your editorial, you came across the word and it intrigued you, and you saw it as a positive word, not a negative word. And a magazine came out of that.

Yuto Miyamoto: Exactly. I think it’s positive because we are not English natives, so we, I like, I’d like to say we creatively misunderstood or misinterpreted the word. So in the dictionary, “troublemaker” is someone who creates trouble. Of course, that's the literal meaning, but we thought, We are troublemakers in the Japanese society. So the word clicked with us.

And for us, troublemaker means someone who is not silent on the problems or troubles in our society. So we, again, we misinterpret the word in a positive way. So that word inspired us and gave us ideas about who we want to hear, who we want to listen to in the magazine.

Arjun Basu: Manami, what about you?

Manami Inoue: I’ve spent years working as an art director and graphic designer in the branding field. I designed the logos or visual identity for companies or products. And designing a magazine was new for me, but it’s something I’ve aspired to since my teenage years. In a sense, it feels like a dream come true for me. And troublemaker, the world, is inspired by Futuress, which I interviewed in our magazine’s issue. They have a Troublemakers class, so it’s inspiring to me.

Arjun Basu: So this just seems like a way for you guys to meet people you’ve always wanted to meet. Why did you decide to make it bilingual?

Yuto Miyamoto: Yeah. That’s a great question. Just simply, we wanted to reach international readers. But there was a specific moment for me to decide to make this magazine bilingual. So just before making Troublemakers, we visited Portugal. And when you visit Portugal, you have to visit a great magazine shop called Under the Cover.

Arjun Basu: Yes.

Yuto Miyamoto: And I found a great bilingual Portuguese and English title called Nevoazul, which means “blue mist” in Portuguese. It’s a beautiful bilingual magazine about conversations for humanity. So the latest issue is about a more gentle internet. And as a tech lover, I really liked the magazine. So I found it at Under the Cover, and I read it, and contacted the editor, Inês.

And we ended up having coffee together and I wanted to buy the past issues. So that experience really made me realize how bilingual magazines can reach anyone in the world. That was such a fantastic experience for me. So now as a magazine creator, I wanted to make the same, like, international connection. So that’s why we decided to make the magazine bilingual.

Arjun Basu: Just from a graphic point of view, I used to edit a bilingual magazine, but it was English-French, and so the languages use the same alphabet, so they’re side-by-side, and we were just using different fonts. And each font had its own weight, because one language couldn’t look more important than the other. There’s a lot of design decisions that go into that. How did you as a designer decide—because obviously the Japanese and the Roman alphabets are so different—how did you decide on your design principle here some, on some, on the, some pages, especially the title pages, they’re on the same place, but then the story is on different pages. How did you just make that decision?

Manami Inoue: At first I considered laying out both languages on the same page, but it quickly became messy and difficult to read because, as you mentioned, they are so different, the Japanese language and the English language. So in addition, the photos ended up being smaller because of the layout. We think that most readers will only read in one language, so we decided to separate the layouts by language.

Arjun Basu: When I was editing bilingual magazines, I found a lot of people—I come from a bilingual country or, nominally bilingual, so people like to practice the other language—but people were actually practicing their language skills because they could see the language side-by-side and so if they didn’t understand the word they go to the English or the French or whatever and they were using it as a tool to learn. It was very interesting.

Manami Inoue: Yeah. Some people say that. Yeah.

Arjun Basu: Yeah, I mean it’s a great way to learn. Are you a troublemaker in the Japanese magazine marketplace?

Manami Inoue: Yes.

Yuto Miyamoto: I think we are. Basically we, both Manami and I, don’t like Japan’s so-called “collectivist culture,” where our society tends to prioritize groups over individuals. But we believe that we can be different, we can be unique, we can be misfits, we can be who we are. So that’s our message in the magazine.

“In the dictionary, ‘troublemaker’ is someone who creates trouble. That’s the literal meaning. But we thought, ‘We are troublemakers in the Japanese society.’”

— Yuto Miyamoto

Arjun Basu: Japan has an amazing magazine culture. A lot of magazines. So just describe what the magazine scene in Japan is like for people who don’t know it.

Yuto Miyamoto: Yeah, that’s true. Japan has a strong print or magazine culture, but for me, at least, I think the majority of Japanese magazines are like catalogs, not like great storytelling print products. At least for me.

So no offense to Popeye, but Popeye has a great influence on that. And because Popeye was, and is, super successful, I think many magazines follow the Popeye style, which is a catalog style I would call it. So, many pictures, small pictures, and small texts, and oftentimes they are related to consumerism culture, so what to buy, what to use, what to see, where to go. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a bad thing, but as a journalist, I prefer deep storytelling when I read magazines.

Arjun Basu: I think you’ve described magazine culture in much of the world, actually. Most magazines, widely-available ones, are consumerist titles. Buy, see, try. And that’s how they feed themselves. And now with affiliate marketing, their websites are basically just “please click here so we can make a few cents.” And that’s what’s happened to a lot of magazines. And I think we’re seeing a backlash with magazines like Troublemakers who are coming in and saying, no, actually, we like the words and pictures, the combination of words and pictures that makes magazines unique. And we want to tell stories visually and through words. And that’s what you’re doing.

Yuto Miyamoto: Thank you.

Arjun Basu: Where do you want to take Troublemakers in the future? I realize you’ve only created one issue, but how does the brand grow?

Yuto Miyamoto: So we are a super-small team, just me and Manami. So we will publish a new issue annually, like one issue per year. So just slowly taking our time developing ideas organically. And I hope we will feature only what we believe in. It’s important for us. So yeah, money is always a problem, challenging. So I hope, at least for now, our goal is just to continue publishing once a year and it breaks even and grows the readership organically. We don’t do any advertising or PR.

Arjun Basu: And how has the reaction in Japan been to your first issue?

Yuto Miyamoto: So far so good, actually. Yeah. It’s much better than what we expected. So of course, some people don’t like our magazine, it's too expensive, and some people don’t read English in the Japanese market. But yeah, I think so far so good.

We got many positive reactions. And I believe personal stories can be universal. And many people, yeah, really liked what we told in the first issue. So we just want to continue doing that.

Arjun Basu: I think the bilingual magazines—for a long time, publishers in all countries were not too thrilled with bilingual magazines because they were worried about the reader—but I think you’re right, these are universal stories about people that everyone can relate to. They just happen to be in Japan. All the stories aren’t even Japanese. You have stories from all over the place. And I think we’re seeing a lot of bilingual magazines coming out now that are stylistically like Troublemakers. They’re just trying new things and they want to be international. And I think there’s a bigger acceptance. How has the reaction been outside of Japan, like in Europe and North America?

Yuto Miyamoto: Oh it’s great. Now we are on your podcast. So that means, yeah, great news. It’s also better than what we expected. We now have stockists in more than ten countries outside of Japan. And the other day I got a great long, intimate, warm message from a Taiwanese bookshop. I was so moved about that. Yeah, like you said—oh I forgot to mention, but another inspiration for me making a bilingual magazine was that I visited Indiecon in Hamburg in 2023, just before making the magazine. And I met a Chinese-English magazine called Te, and an Italian-English magazine called Dàme. And they are so great. And, like you said, people accept it.

Arjun Basu: I wonder how much of that has to do with even things like Netflix and the streamers where we are seeing movies from all over the world now or TV shows—half the shows I watch are either based in Japan or Japanese. And people used to always say that North America, especially English speakers, won’t read subtitles—but that’s obviously not true, and the success of, let’s just say Asian-originated movies and TV shows, in the rest of the world just shows that no one really cares anymore where the story comes from. They just want a good story. But I wonder how much of that has actually helped the bilingual magazines just in terms of acceptance.

Yuto Miyamoto: Yeah I haven’t thought about that, but yeah, it sounds like it should be, it could work. Yeah. Not only Japanese movies or series, but Korean series are huge successes right now in the U S or everywhere in the world. Yeah, probably that’s one of the reasons.

Arjun Basu: I can see a business model where this can almost be franchised, like you could have international versions of Troublemakers, because it can transport itself so easily to any country in the world, and then it would be bilingual like, Portuguese-English, or Spanish-English, or French-English, whatever. It could go absolutely anywhere.

Yuto Miyamoto: Yeah. Sounds great. We are open. We are open to discussing the idea. Please email us if someone listening to this show wants to translate our knowledge into French, Portuguese, whatever language.

Arjun Basu: Okay, Manami, what are three magazines or media that excite you right now?

Manami Inoue: Yeah, it’s tough to narrow it down. But I’ve thought of three that really stand out to me. First, Futuress. It is an intersectional feminist collective that I interviewed in our first issue I mentioned before. It is where feminism, design, and politics meet and manage a learning community and publishing platform. And actually we are preparing a Japanese translated book that compiles their articles.

And regarding magazines, Macguffin is special to me. Nearly 10 years ago, during my first trip to Europe, I discovered their “The Window Issue” at a famous magazine shop, Do You Read Me? in Berlin. At that time, I was like, “Oh, this is it!” Macguffin has been featured on this podcast as well, so I’m sure it needs no further introduction. Maybe you know more than me.

Yeah. And the third one I’ll mention is Sociotype Journal. They are a type foundry, and we actually use their font, Gestura, in the magazine.

“We don’t like Japan’s so-called ‘collectivist culture.’ Our society tends to prioritize groups over individuals. But we believe that we can be different, we can be unique, we can be misfits, we can be who we are.”

— Yuto Miyamoto

Arjun Basu: You said something interesting, that you’re going to publish Futuress in Japanese in a book.

Manami Inoue: Yes.

Arjun Basu: Is that something you’re going into, too, in publishing?

Manami Inoue: Yes. Yeah. I’m translating now, and we picked up five articles from their archives for Japanese readers.

Arjun Basu: And that’s going to be a standalone? It’s not going to be in Troublemakers. It’s going to be its own thing.

Manami Inoue: Yeah.

Arjun Basu: Okay. So that’s an interesting direction. So are you going to do that? If you find something interesting that hasn’t been translated into Japanese yet, translate it into Japanese and publish it yourself?

Manami Inoue: Yes, Japanese designers can learn from Futuress’s perspective.

Arjun Basu: Okay.

Yuto Miyamoto: I want to add that the mini book is a different series from the magazine, but it’s still from Troublemakers Publishing. That’s our official name. So we will have, kind of, two lines. I would say that magazine, Troublemakers magazine, and mini-series called Misfits Stories.

So the Futuress book is going to be the first book of the Misfits Stories. Unfortunately, it’s going to be only Japanese.

Arjun Basu: No that makes sense. You’re introducing other people to Japanese readers, so there is another sideline here. There’s a publishing component as well, outside of the magazine. Okay, Yuto, what are your three?

Yuto Miyamoto: The first one is Lindsay, a magazine based in Melbourne, Australia, that celebrates people and places. They haven’t launched a new issue for the past, I think, three or four years. But still, Lindsay is one of my favorites. I really like how it looks and it feels.

Actually, the size of Troublemakers is the same as Lindsay. So I also like how the magazine has a personal and global perspective at the same time. The name Lindsay comes after the editor’s grandfather, but yet merging feature stories around the world. So I want both perspectives in Troublemakers as well.

Number two is, Epic. Do you know Epic? It’s a LA-based media that specializes in long form storytelling. So I came across Epic when I was working at Wired Japan because Epic occasionally collaborates with Wired US and I translated one of their articles when working at Wired.

Yeah, my favorite among them is Little America. Now we can watch the show on Apple TV+ as well, but I really like the approach of telling stories of everyday people, in this case, immigrants in America. That approach, telling everyday people’s stories, is also something that Troublemakers wants to try, and continue doing that in the future as well.

For the last one, I want to introduce a Japanese magazine called Spectator. It’s not the British conservative weekly, by the way. The magazine Spectator is about hippie culture and counterculture. And the magazine started in 1999. So now it’s 25 years old. For each issue, they choose one theme, such as wabi-sabi, or Zen. One time, they featured The Whole Earth Catalog.

And what I like about the magazine is that, at least to me, they look like they don’t care about the current trends or what people are interested in right now. Instead, they just feature what they are curious about. But they have a strong 25-year-old readership. And many readers, including me, trust them if they think something is interesting and important, that should be important.

So I really appreciate their stance, and I want Troublemakers to be like that as well.

Arjun Basu: And finally, what makes a person a troublemaker?

Yuto Miyamoto: That’s a great question. Oh, that’s a great question. Again, for us troublemaker means someone who is not silent about issues, or problems, or troubles in our society. Especially in Japan, many people hesitate to talk about social issues publicly, I think. Thinking about our society and talking about society—yeah, someone talking about social problems is a troublemaker for us. What do you think, Manami?

Manami Inoue: Yeah. When I was young, I was called a troublemaker because I didn’t keep silent when I found something bad. So it’s a problem or it’s a “trouble,” I said. But I was proud of myself as I am. So when I found the Troublemakers class on the Futuress website, I said: “Oh, it’s me! And I’m good to be myself.”

Arjun Basu: Yeah. You’re not alone, too.

Manami Inoue: Yes.

Arjun Basu: There are people like you. Both of you. I love that Troublemakers exists. It feels like the world is a better place because of it. So thank you so much.

Manami Inoue: Thank you.