The eminent font designer and Type Director at Monotype, Akira Kobayashi, is also a recognised and popular figure among the typographic community of his native Japan. His most recent visit to his homeland in November 2013 was unsurprisingly a great success. Akira visited various leading typographic organisations, held typographic workshops and unveiled his new book on the subject of font design. The book is currently available in a Japanese-language edition entitled “Machi-Moji” (ʻLetters from the cityʼ). It has illustrative examples of fonts in use in digital scripts, handwritten notes, on signboards and in many other situations.