Free Design, Unleash Design: 2025 Focused Issues Report Released

Today, we released the report “FOCUSED ISSUES 2025: Free Design, Unleash Design” summing up the 2025 GOOD DESIGN AWARD Focused Issues.

->　FOCUSED ISSUES 2025: Free Design, Unleash Design (PDF)

This is a 50-page booklet that summarizes the wave of design seen through this year’s GOOD DESIGN AWARDS and provides detailed examples as well as actions and tips to guide the wave to the future.

Design breaks down its own constraints and becomes free with will.

Focused Issues, an action to consider and propose the new possibilities of design through screening since 2015.

This year is the third year under the new system, which was renewed in 2023 under the leadership of Chairperson Seiichi Saito. For the past three years looking back at the GOOD DESIGN AWARD messages such as “Design and Its Outcome” setting our “polestar” in 2023, “Brave Attitude, Organic Design” in 2024, and “A Small Step, Design Leaps” in 2025, we have explored the path toward the Focused Issues messages.

In 2024 and 2025, the Focused Issues theme was reflected in the GOOD DESIGN AWARD message of the following year, thereby strengthening coordination with the award as a whole.

In this context, “Free Design, Unleash Design” was decided upon as the 2025 Focused Issues theme. The message is two-fold: “unleash design from constraints” and “free design to self-select the direction and choose independently.”

In 2025, as in the previous year, it started with a team of six members including Focused Issues Directors consisting of one chairperson and two vice chairpersons, and three Focused Issues Researchers consisting of three experts in respective domains. It has been a months-long screening process that began with the first screening in June 2025. This year, we have set up opportunities for dialogue with people with diverse perspectives, including this year’s winners and past grand award winners, in addition to outside experts.

Based on their suggestions, we have compiled a report that proposes specific actions.

“Six proposals” with interviews, comments, and case studies in three dimensions

What attitude and actions are required by businesses, politics, and government at present in design? Six proposals for various stakeholders are presented in the report.

In addition to proposals by directors and researchers, the report covers comments, reference books, and works to deepen the understanding of proposals, and includes the introduction of award-winning works selected from the perspective of each proposal.

This year’s report includes three interviews. In a three-way conversation, Takashi Yoshidada, Daisuke Sakamoto, and Naoki Ota talked about the current state of the changing consciousness of design, after three years following Magical Dagashiya Tyrol-Do, which won the 2022 GOOD DESIGN GRAND AWARD.

In an interview between Daisuke Nagano and Yutaka Nakamura about Ginza Sony Park Project, gold award winner, the whole story of the project that created a “blank space” in Ginza’s prime location was revealed.

In another interview, Shingo Torii, Representative Director, Vice Chairman of the Board of Suntory Holdings, and Aki Hayashi delved into Suntory’s philosophy of positioning design as management capital for more than half a century.

Tracing the History of “Free Design, Unleash Design”

In the second half, selected by design historian Sakura Nomiyama, a section titled “Tracing the Forms of Free Design, Unleash Design” introduces historical examples of Free Design, Unleash Design from the 20th century, in chronological order.

Free Design, Unleash Design is a very grand theme. In order to grasp the outline, this project aims to deepen understanding from a cross-section of various examples that exist in history.

From tin prosthetic legs in the 1910s to masks during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020s, we can trace the ways in which activities that shape society have opened up new possibilities while keeping in mind existing frameworks.

Opportunity to think about “Free Design, Unleash Design”

In order to better understand the content of the report and proposals, an event to commemorate the publication of Focused Issues 2025, “Free Design, Unleash Design,” will be held on March 2, 2026.

At the event, a total of six talk programs will be prepared based on the proposals of six Focused Issues Directors and Focused Issues Researchers. People involved in “NewsPicks,” “DESIGN no TEMAE,” “WORKSIGHT,” “Featured Projects,” and “Designship” serve as planners, cooperators, or moderators to deepen the understanding of each proposal from various perspectives.

● Date and Time: Monday, March 2, 2026 13:15-20:45 (free entry/exit) ● Venue: International Design Liaison Center (Tokyo Midtown Tower 5F Design Hub) ● Fee: Free (first-come, first-served basis/advance application system)

If you are interested in this report and Focused Issues activities, please visit us.

-> Focused Issues 2025 Publication Event “Free Design, Unleash Design” Event Page（Peatix） -> FOCUSED ISSUES 2025: Free Design, Unleash Design（PDF）