The LONG LIFE DESIGN AWARD is given to standard-setting designs which have been supported by many people over a long time. Applications for the 2026 awards are being accepted from April 1. We accept not only applications from companies on behalf of their own products, but also nominations from you, the users, for the products that you have been using regularly for a long time, or the designs that you particularly like. In this article, we introduce the LONG LIFE DESIGN AWARD and award winning objects throughout its history.

Yutaka Nakamura, Focused Issues Researcher, made a proposal in 2025: “Wild finance preserves the rhythm of indigenous life.” In the process of developing the proposal, he went to Oohito Subaru Micro Hydropower Plant in Hinokage Town, Nishiusuki Gun, Miyazaki Prefecture, to do fieldwork. Together with Hiromichi Tanaka of Oohito Agricultural Cooperative for Power Generation (which is the principal implementing business), Terukazu Yamashita, who was involved in the research design and commercialization of the power plant, and Tomoki Takebayashi, who designed the building and surrounding environment, I walked in the field and asked them how the power plant came to be; from the process of consensus building, a system created to raise funds, their experimental approaches, and the background of the design that blends in with the local landscape.