PROJECT
JIDA
Driving reforms as President of JIDA and Board Member of WDO to strengthen the value of design in society.
WHY
Is the Power of Design Fully Realized?
Postwar Japan achieved rapid economic growth through industrialization, with industrial design playing a key role. In those difficult years, many pioneers waved the flag of design, aiming to rebuild the nation as an industrial powerhouse.
In 1952, the year Japan regained independence through the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Sori Yanagi, Isamu Kenmochi, and Riki Watanabe—founders of Japan’s modern design movement—were among the founding members of JIDA (Japan Industrial Design Association), the first nationwide design organization in Japan and Asia. In 1953, Aiichiro Fujiyama—an industrialist who later served as Japan’s Foreign Minister and chairman of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation)—translated American industrial designer Raymond Loewy’s autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone. This illustrates the early postwar vision of building Japan on a new foundation of industrial design.
By 1958, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now METI) had established a Design Division to integrate American industrial design into Japanese manufacturing, fostering industry-wide innovation. In 1973, at JIDA’s invitation, Japan hosted the ICSID (now WDO) World Design Assembly for the first time. JIDA also urged MITI to launch the “Design Year” movement, advancing public-private collaboration in design promotion—efforts that continued until the 1989 World Design Assembly in Nagoya.
Since the 1990s, however, Japan’s design promotion has been mainly left to the private sector, coinciding with the slowdown of Japan’s economic growth. Japanese designers, from architecture to graphics, have continued to earn international acclaim, yet national design policy has lacked understanding, sufficient budgets, and institutional support compared to other countries. Data shows industries and companies that invested in design during this period doubled their performance relative to those that did not. Japan also lacks institutions such as a national design museum, a dedicated research or policy council, and broad access to design education.
Today, while private companies and national governments worldwide treat design as a critical management resource—producing innovation and global hits—Japan faces a crucial question: is it fully leveraging design as a national strength?
HOW
Rebuilding Asia’s Oldest Design Organization.
Industrial design contributed enormously to Japan’s postwar reconstruction and long supported industrial development. While this brought prosperity, it also altered geology and climate and accelerated the breakdown of ecosystems. We now confront challenges unimagined when industrial design began. Having driven the era of mass production and mass consumption, industrial design is at a turning point. Its role today is to redesign industry itself to achieve a sustainable society.
In this context, Eisuke Tachikawa succeeded Kazuo Tanaka of GK Design as president of JIDA in 2021. As the youngest person ever to hold the post, Tachikawa regarded the pioneering spirit of JIDA’s founders as a model mindset. With respect for the association’s history, he pursued diverse reforms over his four-year term, handing over to successor Chiaki Murata in 2025.
In 2021, Yugo Nakamura designed and produced JIDA’s motion identity.
Originating with Tachikawa’s proposal as a JIDA Vision Committee member in 2019 to change the English name from “Japan Industrial Designers Association” to “Japan Innovation Design Association,” JIDA in 2021 renamed itself from “Japan Industrial Designers Association” to “Japan Industrial Design Association” to open its doors beyond designers. Membership criteria shifted from “professional designers” to “professionals involved in industrial design,” welcoming engineers, researchers, curators, material manufacturers and others shaping the field.
In 2024, JIDA relaunched the “Product Design Certification,” which began in 2010 as Japan’s first national design exam, as the broader “JIDA Design Certification.” This expansion reflects the belief that redesigning industry requires co-creation beyond designers, and that the exam can become a first step into design for a wide public.
From 2021 to 2023, JIDA served as the lead organization of the Japan Design Organizations Council (DOO, formerly D8), with Tachikawa as chair of the board. He helped activate the community of seven member bodies and deepen inter-organizational ties. This included launching the first-ever “JAPAN DESIGN SUMMIT” and promoting initiatives such as the Design Museum movement to strengthen professional networks. As a result of these efforts, the longstanding “D8” name was changed to “DOO,” marking a historic rebranding in Japan’s design landscape.
DOO’s name comes from “JAPAN DESIGN ORGANIZATIONS AS ONE.” Turning the 8 of D8 by 90 degrees creates “OO” (∞), symbolizing unlimited membership and a commitment to connect diverse design organizations beyond boundaries. NOSIGNER proposed the abbreviation and English name and designed the logo.
In 2023, the World Design Organization (WDO), advisory body with special consultative status, brought the World Design Assembly Tokyo 2023 back to Japan for the first time in 34 years. Tachikawa contributed as an organizing committee member over two years, helping shape the four themes—“Humanity,” “Planet,” “Technology,” and “Policy.” During the assembly, he was elected as Japan’s representative to WDO’s board of directors. It was the first time in 50 years, since Kenji Ekuan of GK Design, that a JIDA president also served as a WDO (formerly ICSID) board member.
WILL
Making Wisdom of Design Accessible Across Sectors.
Every person has the ability to create with their own hands and influence society. We believe that any act of proposing something new and changing the world is, in the broadest sense, “design.”
Until now, design has been largely driven by a human-centered perspective. Yet this long-standing focus has disrupted our adaptive relationship with nature. Today, design itself must be updated at the level of purpose—an evolution of our own creativity. We must move beyond human-centered design, create conditions to proactively tackle the planet’s diverse challenges, and increase the number of people who can generate creative model cases for the future. This goal underpins NOSIGNER’s various projects and “Evolutional Creativity,” and it also drives our educational activities at JIDA and WDO.
By connecting the wisdom and practice of design with multiple sectors and sharing creative education worldwide, we aim to spark the transformations essential for a sustainable society and industry.
INFORMATION
- What
- JIDA
- When
- 2021-2025
- Where
- Japan
- Scope
- Design strategy / Logo / Branding
CREDIT
- Design Strategy
- Eisuke Tachikawa, JIDA board
- Logo Design
- Taku Satoh
- Movie
- Yugo Nakamura
- Special Thanks
- NOSIGNER Member
