The Japan Foundation is a specialized public organization founded in 1972 with the purpose of promoting international understanding through cultural exchange. It has carried out programs in a variety of fields, engaging in international dialogue through arts and cultural exchanges, promoting Japanese language education overseas, and supporting Japanese studies and intellectual exchange. In order to enhance the understanding of Japanese arts and culture through the visual arts, the Foundation collaborates with overseas museums on a wide range of exhibitions from traditional to contemporary arts.
As part of our visual arts programs, we organize travelling exhibitions with artworks from our own collection that tour countries throughout the world. The content of these exhibition[s] is diverse, ranging from paintings and photographs to Japanese dolls, craft and design. Currently, more than 20 of these travelling exhibitions are underway around the world, and the response from viewers is very favorable.
The exhibition “Japanese Design Today 100” was first organized in 2004 and has been touring the world for the last ten years. This is a newly organized version of the same exhibition, featuring 100 of the finest examples of Japanese design with a focus on everyday products. It combines superbly designed products of recent years with a group of modern designs from the 1950s through the 1990s that had a significant influence on the design of today.
The design of household products acts as a mirror, reflecting the life of our society and the personal lifestyles of individuals. These designs give a vivid picture of the hopes and dreams of the people who use the products as well as the designers and corporations who create them. We hope that this exhibition will increase visitors’ knowledge of the recent trends and features of Japanese design and at the same time give them insights into the nature of today’s Japanese culture.