Why you’re about to fall in love with Japanese design all over again

Is it just us, or is everyone visiting Japan recently? Thanks in part to a favourable exchange rate, the country has reached the top of many a travel wish list, leading to not only a proliferation of images of Tokyo landmarks on our Instagram feeds, but also a supercharged interest in Japanese design.

Of course, it already has an established place in the British psyche and on our high streets, with Muji introducing its deceptively simple approach to homeware and fashion in the early 1990s, and Uniqlo increasing the obsession just a decade later.

‘European designers can benefit enormously from learning the art of patience, determination and fanatical detail that the Japanese bring to creativity,’ says Clare Waight Keller, the British designer who now travels to Japan every two months in her role as Uniqlo’s new creative director. ‘Every single element is considered,’ she adds, noting that she has even been inspired to edit and minimise in her own home. It seems that today, the connection is stronger than ever before.

This year, the focus will be on Osaka for Expo 2025 (where we are looking forward to seeing innovation from across the world, and a Japanese pavilion by Nendo founder Oki Sato), but the shift first became impossible to ignore during the 2024 Milan Design Week, where shows featuring Japanese talent were among the hottest tickets in town.

Central to this was ‘The Origin of Simplicity: 20 Visions of Japanese Design’, an exhibition at the ADI Design Museum (presented in collaboration with Uniqlo) that explored the concepts at the very heart of the country’s design tradition: the nature of ku (emptiness) and ma (space or silence), which curator Rossella Menegazzo and exhibition designer Kenya Hara believe stem from wide cultural roots, ranging from Zen Buddhism to Shintoism.

‘Simplicity is born specifically from a profound adherence to forms of nature, almost an attempt to preserve the sacredness inherent in every element that Shinto animistic thought brings with it, and laying the foundations of Japanese culture,’ explains Menegazzo, who gathered work by masters including legendary architect Kengo Kuma and Isamu Noguchi, who, born in Los Angeles, turned traditional Japanese washi-paper lanterns into design classics with his ‘Akari’ series for Vitra all the way back in 1951.

Emerging stars are fuelled by this rich design heritage, alert to materiality, craftsmanship and a need to work in collaboration with the natural world. ‘Japanese people are attracted by the high level of skill that leaves them wondering how something was made, while also admiring the simplicity that resonates with Japan’s traditional cultures of wabi-sabi or Zen,’ says young designer Yu Watanabe, who is attempting to revitalise the use of Urushi lacquer (a national craft that is in decline) with his own lighting designs. Watanabe’s modern method of coating surfaces in fewer than the traditional layers of lacquer (used to create the technique’s high shine) produces a finish that allows some of the underlying material to gleam through.

Meanwhile, Kodai Iwamoto, who showed work at the Salone Satellite back in 2011, returned to Milan in 2024 with a collection of pieces that champion craftsmanship – his ‘Possum’ chair has more than a hint of the George Nakashima about it, while his ‘Komoru’ wall lamp was inspired by how traditional wooden Japanese homes worked in harmony with nature, directing natural sun or moonlight. When asked about how Japanese design’s past has influenced him, Iwamoto talks of Kaare Klint’s belief that classics are more modern than we are. ‘I believe,’ he continues, ‘that there are forms that can only be born through learning the techniques and understanding the history of Japanese crafts and industrial arts, which have continued for thousands of years.’

Always ahead of the zeitgeist, Italy’s most influential design houses have long looked to the work of Japanese designers. B&B Italia harnessed the genius of Naoto Fukasawa as early as 2005, with the release of his ‘Shelf X’. It is still in production today, with the brand maintaining the relationship with the designer who, aged 69 this year, is still as prolific as ever. Fans of his output should head to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which will be showing a retrospective of his work, including iconic designs for Muji and Maruni as well as B&B Italia, until 20 April.

Last year, Paola Lenti released the ‘Hana-arashi’ collection (colourful lighting and furniture inspired by the forms of cherry blossom and the structure of Samurai armour) with Nendo founder Oki Sato, while Flexform chose Fumie Shibata to bring a fashion-influenced touch to its new ‘Eri’ armchair. Minotti, known for its collaborations with Nendo (from the ‘Torii’ seating range to the ‘Wedge’ dining table), added Milan-based duo Inoda+Sveje (one is Japanese, the other Danish) to its roster in 2022, resulting in the beautifully pared-back ‘Yoto’ and ‘Sendai’ collections.

Keen to harness the design world’s preoccupation with Japan too, Pierre Frey, the French fabric and wallpaper brand, recently announced a collaboration with artists Keiko Yanagisawa and Naoki Kawano, both of whom live in Paris yet are heavily influenced by their upbringings. They work with Japanese pigments to produce patterns that are, in Yanagisawa’s case, intricate and fantastical, and in Kawano’s, bold and graphic.

This is not, however, purely a case of European brands looking to Japanese designers. The cultural exchange is flowing rapidly in both directions. A prime example of this is Craft x Tech, creative director Hideki Yoshimoto’s initiative that invites world-renowned design talents to travel to specific regions in Japan. There, they immerse themselves in the knowledge of local artisans to collaborate on work that is innovative yet grounded in tradition. 2024’s inaugural Tohoku Project was shown at the V&A during London Design Festival and was one of the most talked-about highlights of the week. It showcased pieces by Sabine Marcelis and specialists in the Kawatsura shikki lacquerware technique, as well as work by Ini Archibong and Studio Swine. New collaborations for the project’s second year are already underway, with the region of Tōkai being the new focus for designers including Bethan Laura Wood, Philippe Malouin and South African designer Atang Tshikare.

Key to Craft x Tech’s appeal is how it empowers both craftspeople and designers to step outside of their boxes, with thrilling, sometimes surprising results. Respectful to heritage, this work is, however, often far from the austere image of Japanese design. There is a sense of fun on the rise.

For examples of playfulness, you need only look to the work of London-based Austrian-Japanese designer Rio Kobayashi, who draws on memories of his childhood in the pottery town of Mashiko to produce designs such as his ‘Mikado’ seating (inspired by the Hungarian game that is often thought to be Japanese because of its name), ‘Fatty Tuna’ table and modernised shoji screens (featuring a Bavarian flag-inspired pattern), which he recently used in his first interior-design project, a home in Berlin for friend Christine Sun Kim.

Also notable is the collaboration between the Japanese textile brand Ultrafabrics and Annud and Dibloo Estudio on ‘Nigiri’, a new collection of boldly graphic stools inspired by the precise art of sushi-making. This more exuberant strand of Japanese design is also apparent in the fashion world, with the likes of Kunihiko Morinaga, whose own brand Anrealage expands on the avant-garde tendencies of Comme de Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo, with inflated forms and an unreal quality. His new ‘True Square’ special-edition watch for Rado, with a face that appears opaque or transparent depending on the ambient-light levels, is sure to become a collector’s piece.

If this talk of Japanese design has left you hungry for more, you’re in luck. London’s foodie scene has been blessed by a wave of beautifully designed Japanese restaurants. Sachi (formerly Pantechnicon) at 19 Motcomb Street has moved from the basement to occupy both the building’s second floor and rooftop terrace, with executive chef Kyung Soo Moon and head chef Joonsu Park’s traditional kappo ryori menu accompanied by an interior inspired by kintsugi (the art of fixing broken items with gold).

The new OWO hotel is also crowned by a dining experience that champions Japanese cuisine. Kioku (Japanese for memory) serves dishes born from sushi master Endo Kazutoshi’s recollections of his grandfather and father’s cooking in Yokohama. Interior-design studio Pirajean Lees translated Endo’s vision, creating joinery informed by the Japanese carpentry technique of Sashimono and upholstering seating in Japanese embroidered silks. There’s also a gem of a sake bar on the hotel’s ground floor. The newest addition for lovers of Japanese cuisine is Himi. The name translates to ‘taste of Japan’, and the Carnaby Street opening by chefs Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa will offer a more laid-back take on classic dishes.

With the UK’s love for Japanese food, fashion and design on the rise, it is increasingly necessary to seek out and champion authenticity. Indeed, Kodai Iwamoto is keen to keep in mind the dynamics between Western culture and Japanese design. ‘Many Japanese designers tend to make some achievement in the Western cultural sphere first, and only after this information is reimported back to Japan do they gain recognition for their work within the country,’ he explains. ‘In Japan, where language and culture differ greatly and Western cultural supremacism still holds strong influence, young designers like us are at a point where we need to reconsider our stance.’

He speaks to and of a generation that is rethinking tradition, taking an innovative approach to heritage crafts and building on a sense of well-earned confidence, as Europe continues to turn its gaze Eastwards.