2009 Good Design Awards: Principal Guidelines

The following principal guidelines to the 2009 Good Design Awards set forth the particulars necessary for administering the programs envisioned. Based on these guidelines, information is also provided in several sections:

Details regarding the Good Design Long Life Award and Good Design Frontier Design Award are provided in their respective guidelines.




1) Purpose of Good Design Awards

Design leads to the creation of superior objects and conceptual embodiments. By addressing the environments that encircle our lives, design drives our own development and leads to a stronger and sounder society.
Inheriting the Good Design Product Selection Program instituted in 1957 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Good Design Awards constitute a comprehensive, globally unmatched program of evaluating and advocating design in terms of its history and scale.
Following on the success of over a half-century, the 2009 Good Design Awards seek the attainment of richly sustainable and prosperous living, industry, and society through scrupulously fair judging-grounded in humanitarian love-from perspectives of innovating lifestyle values, social values, and cultural values.

2) Awards Lineup

The Good Design Awards comprise the
Good Design Award,
Good Design Long Life Design Award,
Good Design Frontier Design Award,
and special awards, presented to selected recipients of a Good Design Award.

The Organizer will present entries recognized as superior by the Judging Committee with a Good Design Award, Long Life Design Award, or Frontier Design Award.
For outstanding entries among Good Design Award recipients, the Organizer will present special awards, such as the Good Design Grand Award (Prime Minister's Award), Good Design Gold Award (Economy, Trade and Industry Minister's Award), and others.

The list of awards is provided in Types of Awards.

3) Organizer, Supporters, and Cooperating Organizations

Organizer: Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization, Inc.

Supporters (expected): Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry / Tokyo Metropolitan Government / Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry / Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) / JKA, Inc. / Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) / Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. / ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment, and Tourism

Cooperating Organizations: International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) / International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) / Others
*Cooperating organizations are listed separately under Cooperating Organizations.

4) Board of Advisors

The Organizer will establish the Good Design Awards Board of Advisors, a third-party organ whose members are composed of senior managers engaged in private enterprise, veterans of academia, and associates from the world of design, in order to obtain advice regarding the role of the Good Design Awards and the program's annual operations.

Advisors are listed in Board of Advisors.

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5) Judging Committee

The Organizer will retain highly experienced design experts, who comprehend the advocacy and purpose of the Good Design Awards, as Judging Committee members, and thus establish the Good Design Awards Judging Committee.
The Judging Committee is vested with the authority to finalize all awards.

Committee members are listed in Judges.

6) Application Method

Applicants register information about themselves and their entries at the Good Design Awards application website, and transmit the prescribed Application Form to the Organizer.
The Organizer confirms entries on the basis of the Application Form received from an applicant.

Detailed information is provided in Good Design Awards Appplication Process, Long Life Design Award Application Process, and Frontier Design Award Application Process.

7) Screening

The Good Design Awards Judging Committee conducts the screening, based on the following Good Design Awards Judging Recitals, for each entry. Recipients of the Good Design Award, Long Life Design Award, and Frontier Design Award are determined from a comprehensive perspective.
A similar screening process is employed to determine recipients of special awards, such as the Good Design Grand Award (Prime Minister's Award), Good Design Gold Award (Economy, Trade and Industry Minister's Award), and others.

Good Design Awards Judging Recitals

HUMANITY:Inspiration for products and conceptual embodiments
HONESTY:Perceptiveness toward contemporary society
INNOVATION:Concepts to pioneer the future
ESTHETICS:Imagination for prosperous lifestyle culture
ETHICS:Reflecting on society and environment

The screening process for the Good Design Awards takes place in four phases: the First Screening (submission document review), the Second Screening (actual entry judging), Special Awards Screening, and Grand Award Selection.

Detailed information is provided in Screening Process.

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8) Good Design Expo

After the Second Screening is concluded, the Organizer will open the venue to the public, and host the Good Design Expo fair. Applicants participate in the Good Design Expo event by exhibiting their entries at the Second Screening venue.

Details are provided under Exhibition Information.

9) Notification of Results, Announcement, and Commendation

The Organizer will notify applicants of the results at each screening phase through the Good Design Awards website.
The Organizer will announce the recipients of the Good Design Awards at a press conference and through this website on the Good Design Awards results announcement date (October 1, 2009).
Once the Organizer's announcement is completed, Good Design Award recipients may independently disclose their awarded status.
The Organizer will respectively confer award certificates to all award recipients.
The Organizer will publish the Good Design Awards Yearbook that will feature all awarded entries, whose recipients will be presented with a copy of the Yearbook.

Detailed information is provided in Good Design Awards Appplication Process, Long Life Design Award Application Process, and Frontier Design Award Application Process.

10) Information Releases

For entries that pass the First Screening, the Organizer will release summaries and images provided by applicants on the Good Design Awards website.
The Organizer will subsequently unveil entries brought to the Second Screening venue during the Good Design Expo.
For winning entries of the Good Design Awards, the Organizer will release summaries, images, and judges' awarding comments on or subsequent to the Good Design Awards announcement date.
No replies are provided in return to specific inquiries regarding screening details of screened entries.

Details are set forth in Information Disclosure.

11) Using the G Mark

Entries receiving a Good Design Award may employ the G Mark trademark, which attests to receiving the award, in the development of public relations activities and sales promotion activities.
By employing the G Mark, the Organizer and recipients will jointly aim to enhance the design mindset among consumers and society at large.

Details are provided in G Mark Usage Guide.

12) Revocation of Awards

In the event that the following facts come to light, the Organizer may revoke the Good Design Award or special award received by such entries.

  • An awarded entry inflicts socially impacting damages arising out of its functional defectiveness.
  • An awarded entry is publicly recognized as infringing intellectual property rights, such as design rights, of another party.
  • The G Mark is used in a manner or method not specified in the G Mark Usage Guide, without the consent of the Organizer.
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13) Protection of Intellectual Property Rights


  • Use of Personal Information

    Use of company information and personal information provided by an applicant shall be limited to the extent necessary for conducting the Good Design Awards operations. The Organizer hereby stipulates consent to such use.

  • Using Information of Entries and Awarded Entries

    Applicants reserve the copyrights to information duly provided (including images) in association with entries, information whose use by the Organizer shall be limited to the extent necessary for screening and public release. The Organizer hereby stipulates consent to such use.
    With respect to awarded entries, the Organizer hereby stipulates consent to use of such information on the part of the Organizer for publication in the Yearbook, publication on the website, and usage to the extent necessary for other public relations activities of the Good Design Awards, and to modifications under unavoidable instances concerning purpose and format in the use of this information.

  • Protection of Industrial Property Rights

    In advance of any information release made by the Organizer, the Organizer asks that entries have design registrations or the like already filed in order to retain industrial property rights.
    The Good Design Expo is scheduled to receive an exposition designation from the Japan Patent Office related to exemption rules concerning the loss of innovation.

Details are set forth in Information Disclosure.

14) Applicant Responsibility Clause

With respect to entries, applicants shall bear all responsibility for any harm arising in connection with intellectual property rights like design rights, quality, performance, safety, sales, construction, and the like. Regarding the foregoing, the Organizer bears no responsibility whatsoever.