Named after the Japanese words jibun (ジブン) meaning “myself” and techō (手帳), or “planner,” the Jibun Techo is meant to be a planner that fits your personal needs.
The Jibun Techo was originally developed by creative advertising planner Hideaki Sakuma. He found that existing planners with vertical weekly formats weren’t working for him. He would regularly have meetings at midnight or need to write details during the evening, and other planners’ hourly trackers always ended too early. He began thinking of a twenty-four hour planner that he could use no matter what time of day it was.
Additionally, he started developing the concepts behind the LIFE booklet. He wrote out all the different types of information in his life that he would want to keep in a journal. Then, he grouped them into categories based on how long he wanted to keep them, whether it was a week, a year, or even his whole life. For example, a close friend’s birthday is something he wanted to remember forever, while trying out a recommendation could be done within a year. In those cases, birthdays could be recorded in the LIFE booklet—something that would be used year after year—while recommendations would be organized into a Diary.
Hideaki continually refined the Jibun Techo while working a day job, making improvements based on user feedback. After seven years of trial and error, the final version of the Jibun Techo was finally ready. Kokuyo agreed to produce and distribute it, and the rest is history.
Today, Hideaki’s original Jibun Techo concept is available as the First Kit Standard. Other formats like the Standard, Biz, and Lite are slimmer and easier to carry. The most recent addition to the lineup, the DAYS Diary, is a daily version that still has the twenty-four hour timeline.
