Poken café meet up (Photo: © Poken Japan)

(Writer: Sandra Barron)

Ah, the business card exchange. The first lesson in Japanese etiquette 101: exchanging business cards is of the utmost importance, and there is only one way to do it right – stand up straight, hold your pristine meishi carefully in both hands, making sure it’s facing right-side up for the recipient, then, bowing slightly, offer and receive in one deft, much practiced move. But that - that was before Poken.

Tokyo’s high-tech crowd has a new ritual for exchanging contact info: they’re tapping together USB-stick aliens, monsters, tigers, and other brightly colored critters called Poken.

There are now 20 Poken characters available in Japan, including the popular ninja, bee, and skeletal voodoo. A gizmo this cute and simple seems to have Japan written all over it, but it is the brainchild of Swiss engineers. It was introduced in Japan this March, three months after the European launch. A set of a dozen Japan-centric characters will come out later this fall, including the geisha, (another) ninja, and panda from the current international line-up, as well as some exclusive to Japan including a sumo wrestler, manekineko beckoning cat, and daruma. Jumping on Japan’s “deco” trend, blank characters that can be individually decorated sold briskly at the recent Good Design Expo.