International Design Liaison Center
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Support for Human Resources Training Through International Alliances
The central objective of the programs of the International Design Liaison Center is to support continuing education of human resources for design. However, we believe that human resources training systems grow and develop based on long-term research and practical experience, and that it would be difficult to build one overnight. Moreover, due to its special features, the academic study of design must be closely linked to societal trends. Considered in this light, the activities of the International Design Liaison Center should move in concert with societal trends, changing, growing, and developing. For this reason, the International Design Liaison Center will lay out its programs and present specific plans in 3-year increments.
It is our belief that Japan's practical capabilities in design are currently the best in the world. However, there are a few lingering doubts about whether those practices have been set out logically as methodologies and used in human resources training. It is also fair to say that there have been almost no educational programs in Japan that link management and design. Furthermore, we believe that if we assume the internationalization of design activities, then it will be essential to offer design education that takes multiple languages and multiple cultural areas into account.
Given these circumstances, the three years beginning with the initial fiscal year of the International Design Liaison Center will be considered the First Phase. We will take steps to solve the pressing problems described above while entering into discussions with educational and research institutions in every country in order to look at the shape of human resources training for design and specific policies. In specific terms, the following three programs will form the core of our activities:
Promoting alliances between educational and research institutions and industry
By deepening ties between educational and research institutions (specialists in theory) and industry (specialists in practical application), we will not only be able to encourage the codification of practical applications and contribute to the knowledge base, but also to assist in the development of new practices.
Continuing education for highly trained human resources
While promoting a variety of design education programs on a day-to-day basis, we plan to systematize them in order to support lifelong continuing education for human resources in design, and to consider the form that an ideal training system should take.
Constructing design concepts that will serve us well in the 21st century and supporting cutting edge research
We will support the cutting edge research that arises when educational and research institutions join with industry to discover the shape of design in the 21st century.
Based on these assumptions, the International Design Liaison Center plans to operate as a base for promoting alliances between prominent educational and research institutions overseas and Japanese companies, designers, and students, as well as with major Japanese educational and research institutions. These activities themselves will be conducted as the participating entities wish, and the International Design Liaison Center will take the role of supporting these independent activities. Thus we imagine that the means by which these activities are carried out will vary considerably.
Let us take the example of an overseas educational and research institution. We can anticipate the International Design Liaison Center serving to
1) Act as a base for promotion within Japan
2) Assist the institution in cooperative research with Japanese companies
3) Assist in setting up new educational activities in cooperation with Japanese educational and research institutions.
If working with a Japanese company, the International Design Liaison Center can
1) Find educational institutions for alliances between industry and academia
2) Find places for the company's designers to receive further education and training
These are just some of the possibilities that we can imagine. We can also provide opportunities for Japanese students to receive information directly from overseas educational and research institutions that they may want to enter. In the future, we aim to promote multilateral alliances among educational and research institutions and companies that will function as venues for constructing new design concepts and methodologies.
