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Japanese Design Today
Japan’s Design Policy
Since the 1950s, the Japanese government has recognized design’s potential as an economic engine. Legislators’ earliest efforts centered on encouraging originality amid the wave of copycat work that proliferated domes-tically after World War II. One such endeavor was the Good Design Award. Founded in 1957 to honor well-designed consumer goods, the program has since been expanded to cover such categories as housing, sustain-ability efforts, communication, and medical devices. Winners are allowed to use the G-Mark logo as evidence of their superior workmanship and extra value.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is also promoting new criteria for judging Japanese goods. One effort, the Kids Design Award, rewards items that reduce serious accidents among children (and, in turn, the elderly, who face many similar physical challenges). Another, the Kansei Initiative, cites emotional appeal as a defining factor of a product’s worth, in addition to functionality and price. The three-year initiative, which details kansei’s worth in the market-place (Japanese goods have it in spades), launched in December 2008 with a product exhibition in Paris. Similar events were held this year in New York and Tokyo and Kobe, Japan, with the final two shows scheduled for 2010.
Mika Takagi, deputy director, Design Policy Office, METI
Why did METI embrace kansei as a way to promote Japanese design?
[In the late 1990s] the Japanese economy was not that good, and we noticed the manufacturing process was changing from mass production to more customized, consumer-oriented goods. That changed our mindset from trying to promote original design for export to something more integrated to the essence of the product itself. In English, “sensibility” is the closest word to kansei. It is a big word, so we made a graph to show six kansei values (see following page). We think this is the core value of our products in Japan.
How does sustainability figure into the discussion about kansei?
We think sustainability is essential for every product. The same is true for universal design.
How do you tailor your promotion to address the different consumer needs in the domestic and foreign markets?
One way of promoting Japanese design is to show how it is embedded in Japanese culture. So instead of putting individual products in museums or shops, we show them together with the Japanese lifestyle. Those are the events we are doing in Japan and abroad as part of the Kansei Initiative.
Has METI been looking at the design policies of other countries?
We have. I attended the first international conference on design policies last year. We got to know so many people from the U.K., Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Those are the countries I keep my eye on.
Why the U.K.?
Because they don’t have a manufacturing base, they’ve been targeting design as a service industry. In Japan, I think we have a combined approach, targeting manufacturing and service, so it’s a little different. But they’ve also been sending designer missions to Japan. We’ve studied that and are sending design delegations to China and Frankfurt this year.
JETRO’s next edition of Kansei, with more than 100 exhibits, will be held at the Business of Design Week 2010, an annual design event held in Hong Kong, November 29–December 4, 2010. Visit www.bodw.com.
The Kids Design Awards
The aim of this awards program is to create a living environment that supports the health, safety, and creativity of children. Founded in 2007 by METI, the annual honor casts a wide net, considering products, architecture, environmental stewardship, communication design, and research. It also offers awards in a half-dozen specialized areas, including universal and maternity design. The program is supplemented by symposia and a Web database organized around childhood development and research. Its winners are allowed to use a special logo—the Kids Design Mark—to certify their products’ added value. The award also provides an innovative way to approach universal design. Much of the work that benefits kids—such as soft-close doors that protect small fingers—also helps the elderly and those with mobility issues. Here are some of the honorees from the 2009 Kids Design Awards.
Universal Design Intelligence
“I have always been genuinely intrigued by the way living creatures manufacture their productions,” says Manabu Akaike, president of the environmental think tank Universal Design Intelligence. “The technologies developed by living things for survival in special environments constitute an enormous resource for industry.” Akaike, who has a degree in biology, is an expert in biomimicry. He has created a multidisciplinary approach that helps corporations like Sekisui Chemical leverage these systems and materials—“nature-tech,” as he calls it. The results are promising: products such as Komatsu Cutting Factory’s faceted pearl use natural resources more wisely while being kind to the planet.
Living & Design Osaka / Toshiyuki Kita
Toshiyuki Kita believes that as living quarters become more cramped and lives more harried many Japanese are neglecting their domestic spaces. This year the designer produced a trade show, Living & Design. Held in September in Osaka, the fair took a holistic approach to decor, covering every-thing from building materials to lighting. Kita, whose work in product design is known the world over, stresses that a relaxing home is not a luxury but something critical to productivity. “Without having quality [design] in our daily lives, it is very difficult to make something of very high quality for other countries,” he says.
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