On behalf of the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the recipients of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2026.

The role of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD is to discover, share, and disseminate good design to invigorate the economy and society and open the door to new creative possibilities. Good design is a broad collective selected across boundaries between fields, and it is all of you, the award winners, who together give shape to good design. The award seeks to sustain this cycle of creation, in which individual ideas resonate with one another and become a force for generating the next good design.

Today, even as we face challenges for which no easy answers can be found, we continue to seek ways to bring happiness to our everyday lives. This year’s award-winning works, spanning the tangible and intangible and transcending the boundaries between disciplines, collectively respond to the needs of our time.

The true value of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD lies in the process through which 100 jury members, all leading figures in their respective fields, come together, engage in vigorous discussions while examining the works themselves, and arrive at their evaluations. It is our hope that the comments arising from these discussions will help deepen understanding of the award-winning designs.

The GOOD DESIGN AWARD will celebrate its 70th anniversary in the coming year. We will continue our efforts to meet the growing interest of society and the expectations of all those who submit their work.

I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the award recipients and to all those involved.

When I assumed the role of chairperson this year, I put forward the perspective of “design that advances vision.” In this year’s screening process, in addition to the established evaluation criteria, we paid close attention to how the submitted products and initiatives were connected to the vision of the company or organization behind them.

When the information provided in the application form was not sufficient for us to fully understand that vision, we also referred to the company’s or organization’s website to better understand why the product or initiative had been created and whether it represented a positive step toward realizing that vision.

One thing that struck me after completing the screening process was that there were very few products or initiatives that were completely unrelated to the vision of the company or organization behind them. At the same time, there were still relatively few entries for which we could intuitively understand, “This design exists because of this vision.” If examined carefully, the connection becomes apparent. However, that connection is not yet communicated clearly at first glance. That was my overall impression.

Actual users do not spend that much time trying to understand the background behind a product or initiative. For this reason, I believe there is still great potential in designing products and initiatives so that their connection to a vision is communicated more naturally and more clearly.

I look forward to seeing more and more products and initiatives about which people feel “Yes, this is what that company or organization would make.” I hope the GOOD DESIGN AWARD will serve as a catalyst for this.

Many congratulations to all the GOOD DESIGN AWARD winners.

The screening process, in which we endeavored to carefully analyze the products and activities submitted, and the backgrounds and processes involved in each, was a meaningful time for me to reconsider the role and potential of design. I would like to express my gratitude to all who participated.

The “EAD50 Electronic Acoustic Drum Module”, which won the grand award, is a product which could only be brought to fruition by a company that has continued to mull over the rich relationships between music and people. The aim was to develop the product by responding to the physicality and passion of the performer, and effective use has been made of modern, cutting-edge technology. The product is the outcome of repeated explorations based on a consistent perspective, and left a lasting impression on me as a great example representing corporate vision.

We were also able to see many companies make efforts to deepen their insights and the presence of the projects themselves during the course of their development or activities. We observed this in the GOLD AWARD recipient projects, and across a broad range of domains. We were also able to encounter challenges in various forms, such as the attempt to pass on existing architecture and structures and put them to use for the future, which were based not only on an accurate perspective on the issues, but also on a willingness and thoughtful judgment that looked ahead to society and life far beyond the present.

Vision; relentless curiosity; and passion. Repeated implementation with these as the driving force will shape our society into a richer one. The GOOD DESIGN AWARD is an opportunity to highlight the process of consideration and the possibilities that result from this, and to share them with society at large. It is none other than the venue to do this. I have high hopes that encountering many ambitious designs and exchanging ideas with many of the people here will spur the creation of new openings for the future.

I would like to offer my congratulations to all the winners. I encountered many wonderful works again this year, and was able to notice and learn many things.

The designs that made the deepest impression on me this year had a shared strength: a gaze encompassing a long time period. They were the ones from which I sensed an intention to design from the starting point of what the creators valued and what kind of future they wanted to create, rather than simply responding to the demands of the market.

The grand award work, YAMAHA’s “EAD50 Electronic Acoustic Drum Module”, and the gold award work also from YAMAHA, the “Trova™ YTL-110 Practice Bugle”, were not only products with a high degree of perfection, but also consistent manifestations of the company’s vision of “creating a future where people’s individuality shines through the power of sound and music.”

The restoration of “Tokiwa Bridge” and the architecture of “NIKAIMENOIE” had the same attitude of gazing far into the distance. This is not simply about making things that can be used for a long time. It is about reading what has been inherited from the past and choosing what should be handed down to the future while responding to the challenges of the present, without limiting ourselves to short-term solutions or immediate expediency. I believe that each and every one of these intentional decisions will lead to a “beautiful form” that could only be created by that particular person, company or organization, and society.

Finally, I would like to thank all the entrants for submitting many designs to this award. I hope that the GOOD DESIGN AWARD will continue to be a place where diverse practices and ideas can encounter one another, and where we can think about the future together.

Many congratulations to all the 2026 GOOD DESIGN AWARD winners. I would also like to thank all those involved with the more than 5,000 projects submitted.

All the jury members read the application materials in depth and carried out repeated discussions based on the exhibits on display in the second screening. And then, comparing these with the screening perspectives, we selected the GOOD DESIGN AWARD works, and the GOOD DESIGN GRAND AWARD, GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD, GOOD FOCUS AWARD, and GOOD DESIGN BEST 100 works.

YAMAHA’s “EAD50 Electronic Acoustic Drum Module”, the grand award work which becomes the face of this year’s award, is a highly specialized product, but by making use of AI, it advances microphone settings, which had been complicated. I felt that it was product design for the new age, where technology and design work brilliantly hand in hand. I was impressed by the way in which the perspective of “for someone” emerges clearly precisely because of this highly specialized nature. One of the gold award works, “Meguru” local magazine, is an initiative that utilizes the characteristics of the classic magazine medium to teach many people across generations a new way of looking at the local community. This is a design that sparks, or makes you want to spark, your imaginative power. I can’t talk about every single one here, but there were many projects that came out of a vision which was like a high-nutrient soil, and the screening was full of surprises. It was a screening session which made me realize once again that we are creating the form of the GOOD DESIGN AWARD together with you, the applicants, as our surprise resonates with yours.

I would like us to continue to expand the opportunities for this kind of mutual resonance, along with you all. I hope that this will inspire us to make tomorrow even better.