Jim Frederick, a Tokyo-based reporter for TIME magazine, profiled Bathing Ape’s founder and designer Nigo more than a year ago, calling him “Japan’s King of Cool,” noting:

Nigo never set out to become Japan’s hottest fashion designer or an internationally famous arbiter of style, or to show young [Japanese] how to rebel without losing their cool. But the fact that he is now one of the most influential movers and shakers of his generation — given how little attention he paid to cram schools, university examinations and the meticulous career planning that are still adolescent obsessions in Japan — does not strike him as particularly odd, either. In fact, he sees his focus on his passions, rather than on society’s expectations, as the secret of his success. “I never planned too far ahead,” says the 35-year-old, wearing a T shirt and jeans plus two necklaces and a giant watch dripping with hip-hop quantities of bling [not to mention that fact that his now sports two brilliant and colorful rows of diamond-studded teeth]. “I just tried to do what I love and create the things that I wanted to create.

CNN just aired a bilingual interview with Nigo yesterday in his Tokyo office, and I will post the full transcript as soon as it is up on the CNN site.

By the way, I wonder what is Nigo’s full Japanese name?