What challenges should designers face now, as found at the GOOD DESIGN AWARDs.
One of the important roles of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD is to discover the possibilities and challenges for the next society. The Focus Issue was created to fulfill this role, and is an initiative dedicated to deepening the important issues that design should face today.
In the Focus Issue, we set “issues" as themes that we believe should be explored through the judging process. While observing the submitted entries, the judges will reflect on the possibilities for the future of society and the role and significance of design, and present their findings as final recommendations after judging.
Exploring “centripetal force” design from the Sigma BF, which is pervaded by a return to the roots
Aki Hayashi, Focused Issues Researcher, put forward “design centripetal force in the age of centrifugal force” as her 2025 proposal. The example which she cited as embodying this proposal was the Sigma BF, a full-size interchangeable lens mirrorless camera which won the 2025 GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD and the ECONOMY, TRADE AND INDUSTRY MINISTER'S AWARD. Through a dialogue with Kazuto Yamaki, CEO, Sigma Corporation, and Hanna Morita, Manager, Brand Strategy Section, International Marketing Department, we explored the source of the centripetal force that was born by "carrying through" a concept.
Design which “overwrites the operating system of society,” spreading out from “city center parks” – Yuki Yamada with Naoki Ota
Focused Issues Researcher Naoki Ota made “overwriting the operating system of society” a keyword in his 2025 proposal. He focused on the “Chiyoda City Park Development Plan 2025,” which reimagines the 58 parks in Chiyoda City as a whole, as a real-life example embodying this phrase. Yuki Yamada (CEO of Tetor inc.), a landscape and civil engineering designer, took charge of the overall design. Ota spoke with Yamada to explore the possibility that this thought and method of park development which looks to the next 100 years could “spread” nationwide.
What is the happy relationship between design and management? – Shingo Torii and Aki Hayashi
Aki Hayashi, Focused Issues Researcher, made the proposal “design centripetal force in the age of centrifugal force” in 2025. She asked Shingo Torii, Chairperson of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Representative Director, Vice Chairman of the Board of Suntory Holdings Limited, for dialogue to deepen the proposal. The full text of the dialogue is presented, including episodes that could not be included in the report due to space constraints.
Design of “blank space” given shape in Ginza - Daisuke Nagano of Ginza Sony Park Project talks with anthropologist Yutaka Nakamura
Focused Issues is an activity that considers and recommends new possibilities for design through the Good Design Award screening process. In advance of the announcement of the 2025 GOOD DESIGN AWARD Focused Issues, this article gives a sneak peek at the conversations which took place as part of this process.
Tyrol-Do, Design to Alter Our Consciousness” - Three Years after Winning GOOD DESIGN GRAND AWARD： Takashi Yoshidada × Daisuke Sakamoto × Naoki Ota
Naoki Ota, a 2025 Focused Issues researcher, follows the journey of Magical Dagashiya Tyrol-Do, winner of the GOOD DESIGN GRAND AWARD three years ago. Through conversations with co-representatives Takashi Yoshidada and Daisuke Sakamoto, the research explores how new systems take root in communities and gradually transform everyday behavior, ultimately reshaping social values.
The potential of designers as “modern-day activists”： reflections on the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2024 by Naoki Ota, Yutaka Nakamura, and Aki Hayashi
GOOD DESIGN AWARD Focused Issues will capture the design “wave” behind the award-winning works and set a theme every year, with the vision of being a “think tank for design.” In the 2024 fiscal year, the report “Focused Issues 2024： A Small Step, Design Leaps” was published as a proposal after a process of several screenings. Three Focused Issues researchers who followed the screening process and developed this proposal from an external standpoint of “not being” judges for the award summarized the Focused Issues for FY2024 and looked ahead to the future.
How can designers take small steps within companies? — Shigeo Usui of Panasonic, Kazuhisa Horikiri of Fujifilm, and Seiichi Saito of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD
The exhibition “A Small Step, Design Leaps” is being held at the Tokyo Midtown Design Hub as a 2024 Focused Issues initiative. Shigeo Usui of Panasonic and Kazuhisa Horikiri of Fujifilm were invited for a talk to mark the opening of the project. What is the first “small step” within a company which thinks about various trailblazing aspects of “design combined with management”?
A Small Step, Design Leaps: 2024 Focused Issues Report Released
Six proposals and 18 awarded works are released to create the wave of design, “A Small Step, Design Leaps,” which we have been observing through the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2024.
Design as “the formalization of tacit knowledge” in order to boost innovation ー Akie Iriyama and Aki Hayashi
Aki Hayashi, a Focused Issues Researcher, made the proposal “Start by questioning identity'” as a 2024 proposal for future design. It was Akie Iriyama, a professor at Waseda Business School (Graduate School of Business and Finance) and a management scholar, that Hayashi asked to talk with her in order to deepen the proposal further. Due to space limitations, some episodes could not be included in the report. However, we are releasing the full dialogue.
Decolonization of Design in the Context of “Pluriverse” — Arturo Escobar × Yutaka Nakamura
Yutaka Nakamura, a Focused Issues Researcher, presented “Decolonizing the nature-culture-economy ecosystem with inner creativity” as his recommendations for FY2024. To further deepen the recommendations, we approached Arturo Escobar, an anthropologist and professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina, for a dialogue.