Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - Puffy receives Innovator Award

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Now in their fourth year, the Innovator Awards were created by major publisher Nikkei Business Publications Inc. to inspire creativity in a nation whose people are known more for conformity than individuality.

Analysts say new technologies and ideas -- embodied in the work of the award winners -- are critical to the country's nascent economic revival after nearly 15 years of stagnation, by providing new business opportunities and giving products an edge in global competition.

The awards also highlight the country's growing prowess in new areas such as services and entertainment -- so-called soft power such as animation and music, in contrast to the manufacturing "hardware" capabilities of the past on which a modernizing Japan built its reputation for excellence.

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Singers Ami Onuki, 32, and Yumi Yoshimura, 30, the pop duo known as Puffy, were awarded special "Japan Cool" honors for spreading Japanese pop music abroad, especially after a U.S. cartoon based on the two women became a hit.

"Many Americans think Japan is cool, and so we were lucky," Yoshimura said at the award ceremony Wednesday night at a Tokyo hotel.

Read the article: Engineers, pop singers feted at Innovator Awards