CrazyLEG
01-07-2005, 11:36 AM
003 condom licensed to thrill (http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0501/0106dinger.html)
By Ryann Connell
Staff Writer
January 6, 2005
When Keiji Ikeda was told 25 years ago that he been given the sack, he thought he'd been fired, but actually he'd been handed the position that has since allowed him to develop the world's thinnest condom, according to Shukan Post (1/14-21).
Ikeda headed the 15-member team that developed the 003 for Okamoto Condoms (http://www.003mm.com/), one of Japan's largest prophylactic manufacturers.
Okamoto's 003 is licensed to thrill, at 0.03mm it's just half the thickness of the next closest weinerhosen on the market, which it also dominates, having sold more than 2 million skins since it was unsheathed in November 2003.
Ikeda has been instrumental in his company's development of love gloves, being sent to work on rubbers when he first joined the company a quarter of a century ago. He wasn't too keen initially, but had just got married and gave the job his all. He's since had two daughters, who gave him a little extra space when they were old enough to learn their daddy's line of work.
"They were pretty shocked," Ikeda tells Shukan Post with a laugh.
Despite being dealt numerous blows through the years, condoms have remained Ikeda's life and he's never considered doing anything else but work with them. He was the first to produce a wham bam dam with a thickness of 0.6 mm, which he later surpassed by going a further 0.2 mm thinner.
Ikeda first came up with the idea of a 0.3 mm-thick shank tank about seven years ago. He began testing immediately, but met failure after failure as his prototypes lacked the durability to cope with the friction. Yet, the rubber professional made himself bounce back.
"I never gave up," Ikeda says, adding that he attributes his ultimate success in producing the 003 to his professionalism as a condom developer.
"Market research showed us that only about 40 percent of young Japanese were using condoms. They didn't like the reduced sensation when using them. And I knew that Japan was the only industrialized country where AIDS contraction rates were on the rise. Other sexually transmitted diseases are also spreading widely. I knew that I had to get the kids using condoms. We couldn't let the situation continue as it was," Ikeda says. "The only option available to us was to create a condom so thin that young people wouldn't mind using it."
Forty-something Ikeda, according to Japan's best-selling weekly, speaks about condoms with a powerful passion belying his generation, most of whose members speak of birth control with embarrassment. Ikeda, however, is proud of the contributions he has made to Japanese society. His company is also proud, too, having presented him and three members of his team with a 1 million yen cash bonus for producing the 003.
"That money didn't last long after we went out drinking," Ikeda tells Shukan Post, adding that he will continue to strive for further new developments in his company's Freudian slips. "My next goal is to make a condom so thin you don't even know you've got it on."
By Ryann Connell
Staff Writer
January 6, 2005
When Keiji Ikeda was told 25 years ago that he been given the sack, he thought he'd been fired, but actually he'd been handed the position that has since allowed him to develop the world's thinnest condom, according to Shukan Post (1/14-21).
Ikeda headed the 15-member team that developed the 003 for Okamoto Condoms (http://www.003mm.com/), one of Japan's largest prophylactic manufacturers.
Okamoto's 003 is licensed to thrill, at 0.03mm it's just half the thickness of the next closest weinerhosen on the market, which it also dominates, having sold more than 2 million skins since it was unsheathed in November 2003.
Ikeda has been instrumental in his company's development of love gloves, being sent to work on rubbers when he first joined the company a quarter of a century ago. He wasn't too keen initially, but had just got married and gave the job his all. He's since had two daughters, who gave him a little extra space when they were old enough to learn their daddy's line of work.
"They were pretty shocked," Ikeda tells Shukan Post with a laugh.
Despite being dealt numerous blows through the years, condoms have remained Ikeda's life and he's never considered doing anything else but work with them. He was the first to produce a wham bam dam with a thickness of 0.6 mm, which he later surpassed by going a further 0.2 mm thinner.
Ikeda first came up with the idea of a 0.3 mm-thick shank tank about seven years ago. He began testing immediately, but met failure after failure as his prototypes lacked the durability to cope with the friction. Yet, the rubber professional made himself bounce back.
"I never gave up," Ikeda says, adding that he attributes his ultimate success in producing the 003 to his professionalism as a condom developer.
"Market research showed us that only about 40 percent of young Japanese were using condoms. They didn't like the reduced sensation when using them. And I knew that Japan was the only industrialized country where AIDS contraction rates were on the rise. Other sexually transmitted diseases are also spreading widely. I knew that I had to get the kids using condoms. We couldn't let the situation continue as it was," Ikeda says. "The only option available to us was to create a condom so thin that young people wouldn't mind using it."
Forty-something Ikeda, according to Japan's best-selling weekly, speaks about condoms with a powerful passion belying his generation, most of whose members speak of birth control with embarrassment. Ikeda, however, is proud of the contributions he has made to Japanese society. His company is also proud, too, having presented him and three members of his team with a 1 million yen cash bonus for producing the 003.
"That money didn't last long after we went out drinking," Ikeda tells Shukan Post, adding that he will continue to strive for further new developments in his company's Freudian slips. "My next goal is to make a condom so thin you don't even know you've got it on."