From The Canadian Press

Kazuo Kawasaki, the Japanese designer of Sarah Palin’s glasses, is grateful to the Republican vice-presidential candidate for making his product famous,…”She is very good-looking. She would look good in any glasses,” Kawasaki said Wednesday of Palin at a Tokyo store operated by Masunaga Optical Manufacturing Co.

The company, based in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, usually makes 12,000 MP-704 glasses in an 18-month period.

Thanks to Palin, it has already received 9,000 global orders, mostly from the United States, in the last 10 days, says Masunaga store chief Akira Nagayama.

Kawasaki, 59, an engineering professor at Osaka University, also designs arty syringes, artificial hearts, kitchen sponges and wheelchairs – including his own that he uses after a traffic accident 30 years ago.

He believes his glasses are becoming a hit because people appreciate how scientifically and ergonomically they are designed so wearers barely feel their presence.

Kawasaki said he shares what he sees as some common political sentiments with Palin.

“I am quite right-wing,” said Kawasaki, a long-haired soft-spoken man proudly wearing the updated version of the MP-704, the MP-705. “I am a nationalist in the sense I believe in the Japanese esthetic.”

But he also can’t help feeling an affinity with Obama.

Fukui happens to have a city called Obama. Some of his former students have started a community movement supporting Obama, although none of them can vote in the Nov. 4 U.S. election.

An award-winning designer who has contributed to the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kawasaki has seen his glasses on celebrities before, including former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and actress Whoopi Goldberg.

But he has never got quite the stunning reception as he has had this time around with Palin.

“I want to say, ‘Thank you,’ to Ms. Palin,” he said with a smile. “I want people to realize how fantastic Made in Japan technology can be.”