Japan is known as a country of design,
and not only in the fields of alluring,
expensive items and modern products.
Outstanding designs are also found hidden in the tools,
structures and lifestyle customs of everyday life

This website features research projects promoted by NHK
now being pursued in regions across Japan.
Front-line creators set out to research
a diverse range of design sites.
Their findings are introduced at exhibitions,
talk shows etc. as the Design Museum Japan Project.

The themes they cover have included
the design processes of the product designer,
Sori Yanagi; the townscape of a traditional ship
carpentry community on the island of Sado in Niigata;
world-beating,
state-of the-art sportswear in Toyama;
the exquisite beauty of efficient propellers made in Okayama;
the attractive Nishimonai Bon festival
dance costumes of Akita; and techniques of the
Anoshu masons of Shiga.

You may perhaps wonder if all are truly examples of design.
For the creators, however,
all are design treasures and become exciting new sources of
inspiration that provide motive force for new creations.
If these design treasures
from all over Japan can be connected,
could we learn to perceive the whole of Japan
as a single huge design museum?

We want people across Japan to appreciate the rich designs
that exist all around them and bring
richness and power to their daily lives.
We hope, too, that this project may serve as a proposal for the
shape of Japan’s first ever Japanese Design Museum one day.