Supporting students' creativity that generates the world's curiosity
KOKUYO Co.,Ltd. (Headquarters: Osaka / President: Hidekuni Kuroda) announced the selection of 10 NEW GENERATION Award winners for student entries in the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2026, an international competition for product design, and held an award ceremony on February 16.
1. "NEW GENERATION Award" for Students Shaping the Future
KOKUYO celebrated its 120th anniversary last October and adopted the corporate message "Curiosity is Life." We believe that curiosity is the beginning of everything, and that curiosity leads to the joy of learning, discoveries in work, and the joy of living.
With this idea, one of our initiatives that aims to generate curiosity in the world is the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD. Established in 2002, the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD is one of the most renowned and historic product design competitions in Japan. This year's competition marks its 23rd outing. Each time, we have accepted entries based on a theme that mirror the times, and selected outstanding product designs. In addition, we have also been working on productizing the winning works (Grand Prix and Merit Awards) through co-creation between the award winners themselves and KOKUYO's product developers.
The "NEW GENERATION Award" selects student entries from all submissions based on their appealing ideas and viewpoints, not based on whether they can be productized. Our goal is to encourage the next generation of young people to take on challenges.
The judging for this award was based on whether the entries evoked a sense of excitement about the future within KOKUYO's business areas of "working, learning, and living." The judging panel exchanged opinions on each entry, bringing together KOKUYO Group employees from across different job categories. As a result, the 10 winners were selected and presented with a trophy and a prize of 30,000 yen at the award ceremony.The winners included students from all over Japan, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the award ceremony was held online.
The trophies presented to the award recipients were created by designers at KOKUYO. Inspired by the ripples that spread the moment a single stone is cast, the design captures this image within ten individual trophies.Each ripple, with its own distinct expression, symbolizes the resonance that has spread from the recipients' one-of-a-kind perspectives.Through these trophies, we express our hope that the award recipients--who will shape the future of design--will continue to value their unique viewpoints and keep casting their own stones into the world.
This year's NEW GENERATION Award trophy
The online award ceremony
2. "NEW GENERATION Award" Winning Works (Order of Entry)
| Title | Creator |
|---|---|
| Eraser Drops | kiooooot! (Saki Biwahara,Noi Fumiyama,Keiichiro Yamada,Yurina Yokoi,Keita Yoshimura) |
| Xterminotes | Ma Kwan Lam |
| Trace of time | Ma Kwan Lam |
| hiraganabi | Akari Sugi |
| Drip Note | NERD (Noie Hirase,Shuto Mogi,Yuto Yamaguchi) |
| Fleurinê | Chia-Yi Liu |
| Ambient Clock | Tatsuru Sugie |
| Fingerspelling Clip | Nanako Omoto |
| Echoes of Done | HIGHpurple (Chen Zifan、Gao Keran) |
| Polishing Eraser | TOMO (Shoma Mori,Shotaro Togo) |
Details such as the presentation sheets, descriptions of the works, and judges' comments are posted on the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD website.
https://www.kokuyo.com/design-award/award-archive/2025/new-generation/
3. KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2026 Final Judging, Award Ceremony, and Talk Show
The final judging to decide the Grand Prix and Merit Awards for the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD 2026 will be held on Saturday, March 14, and the award ceremony will be held that evening. In the final judging that will occur in the first part, 10 designers from Japan and overseas who were selected as finalists, after the second judging of 1,344 entries, will give presentations and have a question-and-answer session with the judges. The second part will feature the award ceremony and a talk show with the judges.
The final judging and award ceremony will be streamed live on the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD YouTube channel.
(1) Date and time
March 14 (Sat.)
1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. (Scheduled) [Part 1]: Finalist presentations (Final judging)
6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (Scheduled) [Part 2]: Announcement of winning works and talk show with the judges
(2) Streaming channel
KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/KokuyoDesignAward
Note: Details of the broadcast will be available on the KOKUYO website from March 14, 2026 (Sat.).
https://www.kokuyo.com/en/award/
Note: During the broadcast, only Japanese is available. English subtitled version will be released at a later date In addition to updating our website, we will also post information on the following social media platforms.
• Facebook (Japanese/English) :https://www.facebook.com/KokuyoDesignAward.japan/
• Instagram (Japanese/English): https://www.instagram.com/kokuyo_designaward
• X (Japanese): https://twitter.com/kokuyo_DA
• LINE (Japanese): @kokuyo_da