Love, freedom and Tenga!

Tenga is a Japanese brand that was created by an auto mechanic in 2005 in Tokyo. 

Their mission: to build a world that's open, free, and full of joy where individuality is celebrated for making you who you are. Tenga focuses on penis owners and makes quality pleasure items with unique design aesthetics. 

With products being sold in 69 countries around the world and over 90 million units shipped, TENGA is the leading manufacturer of sexual wellness products globally. Incredibly impressive.

Below we have taken out some excerpts from an interview with Koichi Matsumoto, CEO of TENGA, on how he started the company, and where it will go next.

You've released many products over the years, what are your thoughts behind this?
Matsumoto : TENGA has a vision "To bring sexuality to the forefront, for everyone to enjoy", with the objective to make a new genre of product in the mainstream market. For this, I feel it's vital to keep introducing new ideas to the world.

Unlike other saturated sex toy markets, there is still so much ground left to cover in the realm of sexual wellness items like TENGA. We continue to propose new ideas, new ways to provide value, with the goal of enriching people's sex lives.

What do you mean by a product providing value?
Matsumoto : For example, when I was a kid there was no such thing as face wash. When it first came out you'd hear people say, "Soap, but just for your face?" or "What are you talking about? What's wrong with normal soap?". However, if you tried it out you knew that it was different, in how it felt and what it did for your skin. Face Wash is all over the place now, it's completely normal. It didn't exist, but when it came out, it was good, and it made your life better. It provided value.

What I strive for is to provide that sort of value, and I feel that every product we've launched has provided some value to how you can enjoy your sexuality and sexual wellness.

I have never sold a product with no soul.

Recently, we opened our first flagship store in a department store here in Japan. I stood at the store every weekend for a year talking to customers, and I feel this holds true to this day.

I will explain to every customer who is willing to listen, "This is who I want to make happy with this product, and how it will achieve this". It's when that feeling is mutually felt that a spark of understanding emerges. And when that product matches up to the high standard of the explanation, that's when you first feel like you want to purchase it.

The most important thing is to make a product with soul, convey those thoughts and feelings to the customer, and to help them feel the same. Whether I'm talking to an individual person at the store, or if I'm talking to possibly millions through big PR campaigns, I realised that did not change.

We now have over 100 different types of products that we've launched. A lot of people have felt what we felt, and I couldn't be happier to say we've made it 15 years doing what we love.

What are your future goals for TENGA?
Matsumoto : The vision, "To bring sexuality to the forefront, for everyone to enjoy", was formed on the foundation that everyone deserves the right to enjoy their life, their way; without hurting or getting in the way of other people's right to enjoy theirs - one of our core beliefs is compassion.

We will continue to hold dear everyone's right to enjoy their own sexuality, their own freedom, and their own life.

It's the thought I put behind our brand message "Love, Freedom and TENGA". We'll continue to build a world where we can all live free, with love.

The values at Tenga’s core are undoubtedly aligned with those of our own and we are so excited and proud to have some of their innovative and beautiful pieces on pleasesex.com

Shop TENGA here.