Image credit: Kenya Hara

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Kenya Hara

Member, Academic Board
Member, Examination Board
Teacher

Kenya Hara is the Representative Director of the Board of Nippon Design Center Inc. (NDC), and the Chief Executive Designer of Hara Design Institute (HDI). He is the Art Director in Communication and Board Director of MUJI, and is the President of the Japan Design Committee Co. Ltd., and the Japan Designers Association Inc. He is also the Professor of the Department of Science of Design in Musashino Art University (MAU), Japan.

Kenya Hara is Japan’s most respected thinker and prolific designer. He is devoted to developing design deeply rooted in Japanese culture and philosophy. Kenya Hara is synonymous with MUJI’s acclaimed art direction, and had been honored with the highest awards in various fields and encompassing diverse activities, for his works and books, including the Japanese Design Cultural Award. For his book “Design of Design”, he was awarded Japan’s highest honor, the 2004 Suntory Prize for Social Science and Humanities.

Kenya Hara has done work for diverse industries and companies in healthcare, service, retail, construction, engineering, science and technology, food and beverage, communication, and government agency, such as Honda Motor, Sony, Nissan Motor, Panasonic Electronics, and the Japanese government.

Kenya Hara is respected as a storyteller who approaches real problems of the day from the perspective of design. He is interested in designing “circumstances” or “conditions” rather than “things”. Kenya Hara traveled the world widely in an attempt to investigate the meaning of “design”. These efforts were evident in his many projects, and in the international touring exhibitions, “RE-DESIGN”, “HAPTIC”, and “SENSEWARE”; each title representing a keyword that embraces the ever-changing value of existence.

Kenya Hara is a Member of the Academic Board and Examination Board of Autumn School. He is instrumental in defining, and developing the syllabus and curriculum of the membership program "Design (The Abduction for Society)". This membership program realizes his vision for how design should be taught if when it was to be taught in a school. This membership program is therefore unique, and much is, in turn, credited to his predecessor, mentor, and teacher, in the Department of Science of Design in MAU, an alumnus and teacher of HfG Ulm, Professor Emeritus Shutaro Mukai.

Kenya Hara graduated with a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts both from the prestigious MAU, Japan.