Shuichiro Ogawa
日本語

Notes · updated 2026-08-31

The Genealogy of Design Research in Japan: Three Origins, and the University That Passed the Presidency Around

An integrative summary mapping the genealogy of design research and design education in Japan across four layers: the founding of institutions (1876–2026), the scholarly community (learned societies and journals), theoretical schools, and the structure of faculty hiring. It draws on 94 sources in total: peer-reviewed papers plus official primary materials from universities, learned societies, and public agencies. Full bibliographic details for each source appear in the “References” section below (with DOIs/URLs). The internal ledger with provenance tracking is at source/review/japan-design-research-genealogy/papers.md (repository-internal, not published). Collection pipeline: source-researcher (profile: scholarly) run in parallel along five lines: institutional histories, society histories, theoretical schools, empirical work on academic cliques, and a tally of faculty alma maters. Protocol: .claude/rules/collection-protocol.md (zero fabrication, provenance tracking).

Survey Metadata

  • Collection date: 2026-08-31 / Count: 94 (A institutional histories 28, B society histories 30, C theoretical schools 19, D empirical work on academic cliques 14, E faculty alma mater tally covering 31 individuals at 3 institutions, F/G primary sources for the succession of presidents 11)
  • Period: 1876 (Technical Fine Arts School) to 2026, with the center of gravity in the postwar era (1945–)
  • Source composition: peer-reviewed papers (J-STAGE, institutional repositories, international journals) and official institutional histories from universities, learned societies, and public agencies. The latter are treated as primary sources, but they are recorded as self-reported and distinguished from peer-reviewed papers
  • Confidence notes: The past presidents of the Japan Society for the Science of Design were reconstructed by reading the colophons of the society’s journal across nearly every issue digitized on J-STAGE from 1960 onward. Issues from 1953 to 1959 are not digitized, so the year Masaru Katsumi became chair cannot be established. For the presidents’ institutional affiliations, the subagent to which that task was delegated returned two mutually contradictory sets of results for the same request (see below); its report was therefore discarded, and affiliations were re-established using only official university lists of emeritus professors and the affiliation lines printed on the authors’ own papers. Even so, two presidents remain unestablished. The faculty alma mater tally covers only 31 individuals at 3 institutions and is not a sample representative of design academia in Japan as a whole. Unverified items are collected at the end

TL;DR

Design research in Japan has no single point of origin. An engineering line issuing from the government craft schools, a fine arts line issuing from the design department of the fine arts school, and a private-university line that took in formal-design theory from abroad after the war each followed their own institutional genealogy and founded their own learned society. That the Japan Society for the Science of Design (1953), the Japan Society of Design (1959), and the Design Research Association (1992) stand side by side is not a sign of an immature field but the result of three streams with different origins each becoming institutionalized.

Where factions are plainly visible is the society presidency. The Japan Society for the Science of Design publishes no list of past presidents, but the colophon of its journal prints “President ____” in every issue, and the issues digitized on J-STAGE make the entire succession from 1960 onward traceable. Of the 14 reconstructed this way, among the 12 whose affiliation during their term could be established in primary sources, Chiba University accounts for 6. Across the 25 years from 1986 to 2011, five presidents from Chiba University held the office, interrupted by only two others. A 1986 paper, moreover, lists Kiyoshi Miyazaki, Susumu Suzuki, and Hiroyuki Aoki — all three later presidents — as co-authors under the same affiliation, “Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University.” The presidency circulated within the same research group at the same university.

When it comes to faculty hiring, however, the story reverses. There is a public estimate that 32.6% (FY2013) of Japanese university faculty were hired by the institution that granted their own degree, and inbreeding in Japanese university hiring has become an object of international research. Yet no figure restricted to design or fine arts exists, either in public statistics or in peer-reviewed research. Nor could any peer-reviewed paper quantitatively demonstrating the existence of “predetermined” job calls be found. Much of what is said about hiring in design circulates without any data behind it.

To fill that gap even a little, the alma maters of faculty at three major institutions were tallied from publicly available information; the self-institution rate ranged from 12.5% at Kobe Design University to 66.7% at the Department of Science of Design at Musashino Art University. At the same time, at the institution with the highest self-institution rate, none of the 6 faculty whose educational background could be confirmed held a doctorate. Faculty hiring in studio-based fields runs on criteria different from those of recruitment measured by degrees and publication records. If so, the very indicator of an inbreeding rate has to be reexamined for what it can and cannot measure about hiring in design.

Three Origins

The institutional forms of design education in Japan descend from streams of different character: two government schools of the Meiji era, and the reception of ideas from abroad before and after the war.

flowchart TB
  BAUHAUS["Bauhaus (Germany)<br/>1919–1933"]
  ULM["Ulm School of Design, HfG Ulm (Germany)<br/>1953–1968"]

  KOBU["Technical Fine Arts School (Kobu Bijutsu Gakko)<br/>1876–1883"]
  BIJUTSU["Tokyo Fine Arts School, Department of Design (Zuan-ka)<br/>1896"]
  GEIDAI["Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Design<br/>1975 reorganization"]
  TKK["Tokyo Higher School of Arts and Technology<br/>1921"]
  KOGEI["Chiba University, Faculty of Arts and Crafts<br/>1949"]
  CHIBA["Chiba University, Faculty of Engineering<br/>Department of Industrial Design 1951"]
  CHIBA_D["Chiba University, Department of Design<br/>1998 / 2008 / 2017 reorganizations"]
  KYUSHU_G["Kyushu Institute of Design<br/>1968"]
  KYUSHU_U["Kyushu University, School of Design<br/>2003 merger"]

  KYOIKU["Tokyo University of Education<br/>Faculty of Education, Department of Art"]
  TSUKUBA["University of Tsukuba, School of Art and Design<br/>1975"]
  TSUKUBA_G["University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Art and Design<br/>2011"]

  KYOTO_K["Kyoto Higher Technical School of Arts and Crafts (Kyoto Koto Kogei Gakko)<br/>1902"]
  KIT["Kyoto Institute of Technology<br/>Department of Design and Crafts 1954"]

  SHIDOSHO["Industrial Arts Research Institute, Ministry of Commerce and Industry<br/>1928 Sendai"]
  SHINKENCHIKU["New Architecture and Industrial Arts Institute (Shin-Kenchiku Kogei Gakuin)<br/>1932"]
  KUWASAWA["Kuwasawa Design School<br/>1954"]
  ZOKEI["Tokyo Zokei University<br/>1966"]
  MUSABI["Musashino Art University<br/>Department of Science of Design 1967"]

  KOBU -. "institutionally discontinuous" .-> BIJUTSU
  BIJUTSU --> GEIDAI
  BIJUTSU --> TKK
  TKK --> KOGEI --> CHIBA --> CHIBA_D
  CHIBA -- "Shinji Koike retires 1967" --> KYUSHU_G
  KYUSHU_G --> KYUSHU_U
  KYOIKU --> TSUKUBA --> TSUKUBA_G
  KYOTO_K --> KIT
  BAUHAUS -- "Takehiko Mizutani, Iwao Yamawaki, Michiko Yamawaki" --> SHINKENCHIKU
  BAUHAUS -- "composition education" --> KUWASAWA
  SHIDOSHO -- "Isamu Kenmochi, Katsuhei Toyoguchi, Shinji Koike" --> CHIBA
  KUWASAWA --> ZOKEI
  ULM -- "Shutaro Mukai 1956–57 / 1963–65" --> MUSABI

The Engineering Line: From the Tokyo Higher School of Arts and Technology to Chiba University

In 1921 the Department of Industrial Design of the Tokyo Fine Arts School became independent as the Tokyo Higher School of Arts and Technology. After the war it passed through the Tokyo Technical College (renamed in 1944) and became the Faculty of Arts and Crafts of Chiba University (1949); in 1951 the Department of Industrial Design was established within the Faculty of Engineering. Since then it has been reorganized repeatedly, as the Department of Design Engineering (1998), the Department of Design (2008), and the Design Course of the Department of Integrated Engineering (2017), reaching its present form.

Chiba University is sometimes introduced as “Japan’s first university design department,” but no peer-reviewed paper or official document explicitly verifying this could be reached. Multiple mentions of its pioneering character can be found, but the grounds for its being the first have not been confirmed.

The Fine Arts Line: From the Zuan-ka to Tokyo University of the Arts

The Department of Design (zuan-ka) was established at the Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1896, and through the reorganization of 1975 it became the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts. The Technical Fine Arts School (1876–1883), which stands before it, is often spoken of as the starting point of modern design education in Japan, but it was abolished in 1883 and is not a direct predecessor of the Tokyo Fine Arts School. There is an institutional discontinuity.

The Geijutsu Kogaku Line: From Chiba University to Kyushu

The third stream begins with the movement of a single person. Shinji Koike, after working at the Industrial Arts Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, became a professor at Chiba University in 1950 and took part in founding the Department of Industrial Design. When he retired from Chiba University in 1967 he became head of the preparatory office for founding the Kyushu Institute of Design, and the following year, in 1968, he became its first president, serving until 1974 (according to the obituary article of the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties). The idea he raised was the “humanization of technology,” and a “higher-order design” as the synthesis of science and art. The Kyushu Institute of Design merged with Kyushu University on 1 October 2003, forming a three-layered organization consisting of the School of Design, the Graduate School of Design, and the Faculty of Design.

Engineering-based design from Chiba University crossed to Kyushu, was institutionalized there under a different set of ideas, and became an independent school. This movement also corresponds to the branching of learned societies examined below.

Receiving Ideas from Abroad: Bauhaus and Ulm

Before the war, Takehiko Mizutani, Iwao Yamawaki, and Michiko Yamawaki studied at the Bauhaus, and after returning to Japan they taught formal design at institutions such as Renshichiro Kawakita’s New Architecture and Industrial Arts Institute (1932). The translated term “composition” (kosei) that Mizutani brought back was systematized as composition education by Masaru Katsumi and Masato Takahashi, and Takahashi developed it further into a “science of composition.”

After the war the receiving vessel was the Ulm School of Design (opened 1953, closed 1968). Shutaro Mukai was in residence at Ulm from 1956 to 1957 and again from 1963 to 1965, and after returning to Japan he opened the Department of Science of Design at Musashino Art University in 1967 together with Kimimasa Abe. Mukai served as a professor in that department until 2003.

Kimimasa Abe is also the commentator who pointed out, in 1978, the “absence of a science of design” discussed below.

The Learned Societies Split Three Ways

The differences of origin show up directly in the shape of the scholarly community.

flowchart TB
  CHIBA["Chiba University, Department of Industrial Design"]
  JSSD["Japan Society for the Science of Design<br/>founded 1953, 2,150 regular members"]
  IASDR["IASDR<br/>founded 2005<br/>4 societies from Japan, UK, Taiwan, Korea"]

  KYODAI["Aesthetics, art history, and craft history in the Kansai region"]
  KANSAI["Kansai Society of Design (Kansai Isho Gakkai)<br/>1959"]
  ISHO["Japan Society of Design<br/>renamed 1978<br/>secretariat: Osaka University"]

  KYUSHU["Kyushu Institute of Design<br/>→ Faculty of Design, Kyushu University"]
  GEIKO["Design Research Association<br/>1992"]
  KOBE["Kobe Design University<br/>secretariat relocated 2011"]

  HIROSHIMA["Hiroshima University<br/>Mitsuo Nagamachi"]
  KANSEI["Japan Society of Kansei Engineering<br/>1998"]

  CHIBA -- "Shinji Koike, first president" --> JSSD
  JSSD --> IASDR
  KYODAI -- "Tsutomu Ijima, first president" --> KANSAI
  KANSAI --> ISHO
  KYUSHU --> GEIKO --> KOBE
  HIROSHIMA --> KANSEI

The Japan Society for the Science of Design (JSSD) was founded on 20 July 1953, its predecessor being the “Design Problems Study Group.” It was incorporated as a general incorporated association in 2016.

On the first president, the society’s own accounts differ. The introduction to the society written in 2023 by Akiyo Kobayashi, then its president, states: “In 1954 the first general meeting was held, Shinji Koike, professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Chiba University, was elected the first president, and the society started with 71 members.” An article in the society’s 2002 newsletter, by the chair of its planning committee, instead writes: “Our Japan Society for the Science of Design, which started in August 1953 (Showa 28) with Masaru Katsumi as president.” Both are internal documents of the society, and this study has no grounds for accepting one and discarding the other. The two might be reconciled if the representative at the founding and the first president elected at the first general meeting are counted separately, but the journal issues from 1953 to 1959 are not digitized, so this cannot be checked. The cumulative numbering of general meetings is at least consistent (2001 was the 48th, which matches counting the first as 1954). Its journal, the Bulletin of JSSD, has three strands (research papers, special issues, and collections of works), and the society also publishes the English-language Journal of the Science of Design. It has 2,150 regular members, 5 branches, and 15 or 16 research subcommittees (the count differs even within the official website).

The Japan Society of Design began in 1959 as the Kansai Society of Design and was renamed to its present title in 1978. Its first president was Tsutomu Ijima; its journal Design Theory was launched in 1962, moved to twice a year from 2003, and had all its issues digitized in 2015. Its secretariat is in the Graduate School of Humanities at Osaka University, and its base consists of researchers in aesthetics, art history, and craft history in the Kansai region.

The Design Research Association was founded in 1992, its Japanese name being Geijutsu Kogaku Kai. Its secretariat was initially housed in the Graduate School of Design at Kyushu University and moved to Kobe Design University in 2011. The ideas Shinji Koike brought to Kyushu thus took the form of a learned society a quarter of a century later.

The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering came into being with an inaugural general meeting held at the Gakushi Kaikan on 9 October 1998. Mitsuo Nagamachi is regarded as the pioneer of kansei engineering, but whether he was its first president could not be confirmed in primary sources.

Besides these, the Japan Society for Graphic Science (which began as the Japan Graphic Science Study Group in 1966 and was formally founded in 1967), the Human Interface Society (1999, which became independent from a subcommittee of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers), and the HCI Special Interest Group of the Information Processing Society of Japan (which began in 1981 as the Japanese Text Input Method Study Group) function as alternative routes for design researchers.

Internationally, the Japan Society for the Science of Design became in 2005 one of the four founding societies of IASDR (International Association of Societies of Design Research). The remaining three are the DRS in the United Kingdom, the CID in Taiwan, and the KSDS in Korea.

The Universities That Produced the Presidents

The most direct indicator of factions is who has occupied a society’s senior positions. The Japan Society for the Science of Design carries no list of past presidents on its official website. Yet the colophon of its journal, the Bulletin of JSSD, prints in every issue: “Published by the Japan Society for the Science of Design, President ____”. Nearly every issue from 1960 onward is digitized on J-STAGE, so reading the colophons in sequence traces the succession year by year. The list reconstructed this way follows.

  • Shinji Koike (1954, first president)
  • Masaru Katsumi (re-elected as chair as of 1960; titled president in colophons from 1967; through 1982)
  • Kazuo Akashi (1983–1985)
  • Susumu Suzuki (1986–1990)
  • Toshiro Inatsugu (1991–1992)
  • Norihiko Mori (1993–March 1996)
  • Kiyoshi Miyazaki (May 1996–March 2000)
  • Akira Harada (May 2000–2003)
  • Kazuo Sugiyama (2004–around 2007)
  • Hiroyuki Aoki (around 2008–2011)
  • Toshimasa Yamanaka (2012–2015)
  • Yoshiyuki Matsuoka (2016–2020)
  • Akiyo Kobayashi (2020–2023)
  • Hiroki Sato (2024–2027, incumbent)

Affiliations during each term were established from official university lists of emeritus professors and from the affiliation lines printed on papers the presidents themselves published in the Bulletin of JSSD. The secretariat address in the colophon cannot be used for this purpose. The secretariat is housed wherever the director in charge of it works, which has no bearing on the president’s affiliation (from 1993 onward it left the universities altogether and has been fixed at an office in Nishiogikita, Suginami-ku).

flowchart LR
  CHIBA["Chiba University<br/>6"]
  TSUKUBA["University of Tsukuba<br/>2"]
  GEIDAI["Tokyo University of the Arts<br/>1"]
  MUSABI["Musashino Art University<br/>1"]
  KEIO["Keio University<br/>1"]
  CIT["Chiba Institute of Technology<br/>1"]
  UNK["Not established<br/>2"]

  CHIBA --> C1["Shinji Koike 1954"]
  CHIBA --> C2["Susumu Suzuki 1986–1990"]
  CHIBA --> C3["Norihiko Mori 1993–1996"]
  CHIBA --> C4["Kiyoshi Miyazaki 1996–2000"]
  CHIBA --> C5["Kazuo Sugiyama 2004–2007"]
  CHIBA --> C6["Hiroyuki Aoki 2008–2011"]
  TSUKUBA --> T1["Akira Harada 2000–2003"]
  TSUKUBA --> T2["Toshimasa Yamanaka 2012–2015"]
  GEIDAI --> G1["Toshiro Inatsugu 1991–1992"]
  MUSABI --> M1["Akiyo Kobayashi 2020–2023"]
  KEIO --> K1["Yoshiyuki Matsuoka 2016–2020"]
  CIT --> S1["Hiroki Sato 2024–"]
  UNK --> U1["Masaru Katsumi 1960–1982"]
  UNK --> U2["Kazuo Akashi 1983–1985"]

Of the 12 whose affiliation during their term could be established, Chiba University accounts for 6. Across the 25 years from 1986 to 2011, five presidents from Chiba University follow one another, interrupted only by Inatsugu’s two years and Harada’s four.

They did not merely share a university. A 1986 paper in the Bulletin of JSSD, “On Chair Design for Handicapped, No.3,” carries the affiliation line “3) Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University,” and lists under it Kiyoshi Miyazaki, Susumu Suzuki, Masaru Uehara, and Hiroyuki Aoki. Three men who would later become president were, at that point, co-authors on the same paper. A 1993 paper likewise places Norihiko Mori and Kazuo Sugiyama side by side as Chiba University. The presidency circulated for a quarter of a century within the same research group at the same university.

One further pairing reads as a lineage. The authors of a 2001 paper, “Layer Structure in Visual Perception of Equivocal Patterns,” are Hiroki Sato (Graduate School of the University of Tsukuba) and Akira Harada (University of Tsukuba). Harada was president from 2000 to 2003; Sato is the incumbent president from 2024. The current president works at Chiba Institute of Technology, but his scholarly origin lies in Harada’s laboratory at the University of Tsukuba.

The affiliations of Masaru Katsumi and Kazuo Akashi could not be established. For Katsumi, one account places him at Tokyo University of Education and then Kyoto City University of Arts, another at Tokyo Zokei University, and the sources do not agree. For Akashi, a Musashino Art University account and a Tokyo Zokei University account stand side by side. The distribution above should therefore be read with the qualification that 2 of the 14 are missing.

By contrast, for the Japan Society of Design all 10 past presidents from 1959 to the present are identifiable for the full period from the official chronology. Tsutomu Ijima, Atsuo Kawamoto, Kazunobu Ito, Tamio Kaneda, Mitsugu Uehira, Hisao Miyajima, Haruhiko Fujita, Akira Tsukada, Naoko Tanimoto, and Keisuke Takayasu. The chronology does not list institutional affiliations alongside the names, however, and this study could not confirm the majority of those affiliations in primary sources, so the distribution cannot be compared with the Japan Society for the Science of Design at the same level of precision.

How Presidents Have Been Chosen

Some issues of the newsletter publish the vote counts from presidential elections.

In the 1998 election (for FY1998–1999), Kiyoshi Miyazaki took 68 of 125 valid votes, with Kiyoshi Seike, Shutaro Mukai, and Akira Harada at 6 each. In 2000 (for FY2000–2001), Akira Harada took 75 of 128 valid votes, with Takehito Kurokawa at 8 and Hiroyuki Aoki, Kazuo Sugiyama, and Takeshi Nishizawa at 5 each.

In both, the winner took well over half, roughly ten times the runner-up. Yet there is no sign that the field was narrowed beforehand. In 1998, votes also went to Shutaro Mukai of basic design science and to the architect Kiyoshi Seike.

Arranging the rosters of officers by year also shows which posts a future president passed through. Harada served four years as vice president, and before that as chair of the planning committee. Aoki became president after chairing the paper review and proceedings committee, serving as a branch head, and running the head office secretariat. Yamanaka chaired the information and database committee and served as deputy head of the secretariat; Matsuoka served as a director. Within the range established here, there is no case of anyone assuming the presidency from outside the society’s own hierarchy.

Five Theoretical Schools That Do Not Read One Another

There are at least five schools in Japanese design research that can be confirmed in the literature.

General Design Theory (Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, Department of Precision Engineering, University of Tokyo) began around 1979 and axiomatized the concept of the design object in terms of topological spaces, dividing it into entity concepts and abstract concepts. The extended version developed with Tetsuo Tomiyama is cited in the context of international design engineering and leads to the Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering, founded at the University of Tokyo in 1992. Yoshikawa published his summation as General Design Theory in 2020. This line is a design theory belonging to engineering and has scarcely intersected with the design studies of the fine arts side.

The Science of Design (Shutaro Mukai, Musashino Art University) rests on the semiotics and morphology derived from the Ulm School of Design. Krippendorff was made a fellow of the society for the science of design in 1998, and his principal work The Semantic Turn was translated into Japanese in 2009 by Akiyo Kobayashi and others. That the translator Kobayashi later became president of the Japan Society for the Science of Design (2020–2023) shows that this school is also connected to the running of the society.

Kansei engineering (Mitsuo Nagamachi, Hiroshima University) is one of the few examples of a methodology originating in Japan that circulated in international English-language journals. Nagamachi (1995) appeared in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, and Hiroshima International University established what is described as the world’s first department of kansei engineering. Lévy (2013), in the International Journal of Design, criticized the position that “kansei engineering should not be reduced to kansei research as a whole” and proposed an extension to “kansei design” drawing on the philosophy of the Kyoto School. This is a rare case in which critical commentary on a concept originating in Japan accumulated in international journals.

Geijutsu kogaku (Shinji Koike, Kyushu Institute of Design) raises the banner of the “humanization of technology,” but no reference to it in the English-speaking world could be confirmed.

Isho-gaku (design studies in the aesthetics tradition): although its institutions, a learned society and a journal, have continued since 1959, no single founding text formulating the academic system itself could be identified. Individual theoretical works do exist, such as Shigeki Irie’s structural analysis of Soetsu Yanagi’s “beauty of use.” The institutional existence of the school can be confirmed, but its theoretical center cannot be found in the form of a text.

Besides these, there are the physiological anthropology and ergonomics line (at Chiba University and elsewhere), the reception of design methodology (an abridged translation of J. C. Jones in 1969, a full translation of Alexander’s Notes on the Synthesis of Form in 1978), Jiro Kawakita’s KJ method (1967), design policy and design management (the G Mark in 1957, the Japan Patent Office’s “Design Management” declaration in 2018), and the introduction of design thinking into universities in the 2010s (Keio SDM in 2008, the University of Tokyo’s i.school in 2009, the Kyoto University Design School in 2013).

The KJ method emerged from the independent context of field science at almost the same time as the design methodology movement abroad, which began with the 1962 London conference. It is a methodology that arose in parallel rather than being imported.

The “Absence of a Science of Design” Has Been Asserted for Half a Century

In 2023 Kazaru Yaegashi and colleagues named the “absence of a science of design” as an issue facing design research in Japan. They cite Kimimasa Abe’s observation of 1978 and Shutaro Mukai’s of 2008. The same absence has been pointed out three times across an interval of 45 years.

That design research in Japan branched into schools without ever being integrated, and that this absence is pointed out repeatedly, are probably two sides of the same situation. General Design Theory, the Science of Design, and kansei engineering each have their own theoretical center, but they do not cite one another. The confusion over the concept of “design science” that Koga (2019) points out, in which Yoshikawa-style design science, Simon-style design science, and Design Science Research in information systems research all go by the same word, is part of this non-integration.

How Far Can Academic Cliques Be Seen in Data?

From here the discussion turns to hiring.

For Japanese Universities in General, Figures Exist

Japanese Science and Technology Indicators 2016, from the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), estimates the proportion of Japanese university faculty who graduated from their own employing institution at 32.6% (FY2013). The underlying material is the School Teachers Survey of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, a complete enumeration conducted every three years. By field, health is highest at roughly 50%, and the social sciences are lowest, remaining around 20%. The text states that over the long term the trend is downward.

This indicator, however, has no sequel. In the 2021 and 2024 editions the same position in the chapter structure has been replaced by “changes in the age composition of university faculty,” and no section corresponding to “diversification of university faculty’s alma maters” exists. The 32.6% figure (FY2013) is the only and most recent primary published value that can currently be traced. Inbreeding in Japanese universities has been left without an update for more than ten years.

In international research, Horta, Sato & Yonezawa (2011) analyze inbreeding in Japanese universities qualitatively and identify three characteristics: job calls that have become a formality, learning experience concentrated at a single university, and the concentration of doctoral supervisors at the same university. Horta (2022) organizes the mechanisms by which inbreeding forms an academic oligarchy and obstructs institutional change, and Shibayama (2022), studying 246 life science doctorate holders in Japan, demonstrates the double-edged effect by which a supervisor’s orientation toward originality is transmitted to inbred students. Inbreeding is not uniformly harmful; its sign reverses depending on what is transmitted.

Competition Ratios in Open Calls Have Been Measured

Maki Kato (2024) analyzes 111 open calls (FY2019–2021) at public universities in Tokyo. The mean number of applicants was 15.12 (standard deviation 24.64), with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 183. By field, the faculty of science averaged 46.00 and the faculty of health and welfare 3.69. By rank, assistant professor stood at 7.29 against 21.17 for professor and 21.06 for associate professor, a gap of about threefold.

The fact that job calls with only a single applicant actually exist carries weight. But this is a measurement of competition ratios, not a measurement of whether the successful candidate had been decided in advance.

For Design, There Are No Figures

What follows is a list of what was searched for and not found.

  • Empirical data on self-institution or inbreeding rates restricted to design or fine arts. NISTEP and the Ministry of Education publish field-level tabulations only in broad categories such as “health” and “social sciences,” and no published material tabulating design or fine arts as an independent category could be confirmed
  • Peer-reviewed papers dealing with studio examinations in faculty job calls at art universities, with the practice of not requiring degrees, or with hiring through personal connections
  • Peer-reviewed papers quantitatively demonstrating the existence of “predetermined” job calls. Kato (2024) measured competition ratios but did not directly measure whether appointments were decided in advance
  • Bibliometric visualization of schools restricted to design research in Japan (detection of schools through citation or co-authorship networks)

Assertions of “predetermined” outcomes are easy to find on personal blogs, but under the collection protocol they cannot be used as bibliographic grounds. Much of the received view circulating about hiring in design is not so much unverified as lacking publicly available material with which to verify it.

The techniques for visualizing schools with data are themselves established. Clauset and colleagues (2015) built hiring networks from placement data on roughly 19,000 faculty in computer science, business, and history, and showed that the prestige of the doctorate-granting institution predicts placement better than university rankings do. Applying the same technique to design is possible in principle. What has prevented it is not the absence of a technique but the fact that design faculty do not share the common attribute of a doctorate-granting institution. The data in the next section show this.

A Tally of Three Institutions, Compiled Here

To fill the gap even a little, the alma maters of full-time faculty at three institutions were tallied from official university faculty listing pages and public researchmap profiles.

flowchart LR
  KIT_S["Kyoto Institute of Technology"] -- "6 faculty" --> KIT["Kyoto Institute of Technology<br/>Design Program<br/>identified 17 / 22<br/>self-institution 35.3%"]
  TODAI["University of Tokyo"] -- "2 faculty" --> KIT
  KIT_O["Tsukuba, Kyoto Univ., Chiba, Hitotsubashi<br/>3 overseas schools and others, 1 each"] -- "9 faculty" --> KIT

  MUSABI_S["Musashino Art University"] -- "4 faculty" --> MUSABI["Musashino Art University<br/>Department of Science of Design<br/>identified 6 / 7<br/>self-institution 66.7%"]
  TODAI2["University of Tokyo"] -- "1 faculty" --> MUSABI
  DOSHISHA["Doshisha University"] -- "1 faculty" --> MUSABI

  KYUSHU_S["Kyushu Institute of Design"] -- "2 faculty" --> KOBE["Kobe Design University<br/>Department of Product and Craft Design<br/>identified 8 / 13<br/>self-institution 12.5%"]
  KOBE_S["Kobe Design University"] -- "1 faculty" --> KOBE
  KOBE_O["Osaka Univ. of Arts, Kyoto Inst. of Tech., Kanazawa Coll. of Art<br/>Tsukuba, Tokyo Univ. of the Arts, 1 each"] -- "5 faculty" --> KOBE

The Design Course at Chiba University was also targeted, but its official faculty listing page is dynamically generated and could not be retrieved, so with no fixed denominator it was dropped from the tally. The Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Tsukuba (63 faculty), the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts, and the School of Design and Architecture at Nagoya City University could not be processed within the available time.

Differences Between Institutions Are Extreme

Self-institution rates ranged from 12.5% to 66.7%. They swing to both sides of the 32.6% average for Japanese universities as a whole.

Kobe Design University’s 12.5% is low. This university opened in 1989, however, so the cohort of its own graduates old enough to have become faculty is still thin. Instead its largest supplier is the Kyushu Institute of Design with 2 faculty, which accords with the secretariat of the Design Research Association moving from Kyushu University to Kobe Design University in 2011. The relocation of a society’s secretariat and the movement of people point in the same direction.

The Kyoto Institute of Technology’s 35.3% is close to the national average. The dispersion of alma maters is wide: besides 2 from the University of Tokyo, they are scattered across the University of Tsukuba, Kyoto University, Chiba University, Hitotsubashi University, Kyoto City University of Arts, and overseas institutions such as the Royal College of Art, the University of Leeds, and Politecnico di Milano.

At the Institution with the Highest Self-Institution Rate, No One Holds a Doctorate

The 66.7% self-institution rate of the Department of Science of Design at Musashino Art University is the highest of the three institutions. At the same time, none of the 6 faculty whose educational background could be confirmed held a doctorate. Kenya Hara holds a master’s degree, and the rest stop at a bachelor’s.

These two facts cannot be read apart. Reading a high self-institution rate as an indicator of personal connections presupposes that “selection ought properly to be made on institution-independent criteria such as degrees and publication records.” But in a department where none of the identified faculty hold a doctorate, that presupposition does not hold in the first place. Selection is made on the record of works and professional practice, and there, whom one studied under at one’s alma mater functions as part of that record.

At the Kyoto Institute of Technology, conversely, doctorate holders form the majority, and the names of their degrees are divided: Doctor of Philosophy (gakujutsu), Doctor of Engineering, Doctor of Literature, Doctor of Fine Arts, Doctor of Sociology, Doctor of Kansei Science, and PhD. At Kobe Design University, 3 faculty hold doctorates, including a Doctor of Design (geijutsu kogaku) awarded by the institution itself, and the rest hold master’s or bachelor’s degrees.

That degree names are divided by institution is itself a product of the branching of schools. And because studio-based and theory-based faculty coexist in the same department, a single inbreeding rate averages these two kinds of recruitment together.

What Can and Cannot Be Said

Only the following can be said.

  • In a sample of 31 individuals at 3 institutions, the self-institution rate varies greatly by institution
  • At the institution with the highest self-institution rate, the number of doctorate holders was zero within the range that could be established
  • Degree names are divided by institution, and the branching of schools survives in the names of degrees

The following cannot be said.

  • The self-institution rate for design as a whole. Three institutions are not representative
  • The presence or absence of hiring through personal connections. The distribution of current faculty’s alma maters does not show the selection process at the time of hiring
  • The direction of the omission bias. Faculty not registered on researchmap or not disclosing their educational background are missing from the tally, and whether that group skews toward self-institution or toward other institutions cannot be determined from this data

Returning to the initial question, “is there a lot of hiring through personal connections in design?” cannot be answered as it stands. The indicator of an inbreeding rate was built for fields that measure people by doctorates and publication records. Applying the same yardstick to a department where none of the identified faculty hold a doctorate measures something different. Reframed, the question becomes: what counts as achievement in faculty recruitment in studio-based fields, and who can verify it, and how?

Gaps (Unaddressed Points)

  • The presidents from 1953 to 1959. The Bulletin of JSSD for this period is not digitized on J-STAGE (the earliest is issue No.2 of 1960), so neither the year Masaru Katsumi became chair nor how the office passed from Shinji Koike can be traced. Because the 1960 society news reports Katsumi’s “re-election,” all that can be established is that he was already in office before then. Only printed holdings, or an inquiry to the society’s secretariat, can settle it
  • The affiliations of Masaru Katsumi and Kazuo Akashi during their terms. Secondary sources disagree, and the affiliation lines on their papers did not settle it
  • Past presidents of the Design Research Association for 1992–2021. The existence of the relevant page on the official website was confirmed, but its content could not be reached
  • Complete enumeration data on faculty hiring networks in design. The basic data needed to apply the technique of Clauset and colleagues (2015) do not exist. Studio-based faculty often have no doctorate-granting institution, so the rate of missing values would be high
  • Research on the criteria for evaluating the achievements of studio-based faculty. No peer-reviewed paper dealing with how a record as an artist or practitioner is evaluated could be found
  • The central theoretical text of isho-gaku. Although the institution of a learned society has continued since 1959, no text formulating the academic system could be identified
  • The international reception of geijutsu kogaku. No reference in the English-speaking world could be confirmed, so whether this school is closed within Japan cannot be determined
  • design-research-2024-2026-literature: the international state of design research (2024–2026). Where the Japanese genealogy in this note sits within that international distribution has not yet been connected
  • design-professions-expertise: the position of design seen through theories of the professions. The problem of evaluating studio-based faculty’s achievements connects to the discussion of professional jurisdiction
  • design-epistemology-methodology-foundations: the epistemological premises of design. The non-integration of General Design Theory and the Science of Design overlaps with this epistemological problem
  • design-social-science-nexus: the interface between design and the social sciences. The Japanese case is not treated there
  • A Literature Map of “Predetermined” Faculty Job Calls: prior work on the hollowing out of open calls
  • Mechanisms by Which Open Calls Become Pro Forma: an account of the mechanisms by which recruitment becomes a formality

References

Institutional Genealogies

  1. 勝村謙一 (1983)「バウハウスの日本人留学者(1)：山脇巌と山脇道子について」『デザイン学研究』第30回研究発表大会概要集. [Katsumura, K. “Japanese students at the Bauhaus (1): on Iwao Yamawaki and Michiko Yamawaki,” Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of JSSD] https://doi.org/10.11247/jssdj.1983.135
  2. 常見美紀子 (2004)「桑沢デザイン研究所の構成教育」『デザイン学研究』51(4). [Tsunemi, M. “Composition education at the Kuwasawa Design School,” Bulletin of JSSD] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jssdj/51/4/51_KJ00003300959/_article/-char/ja/
  3. 孫大雄・宮崎清・樋口孝之 (2008)「1920-1930年代における小池新二の活動：昭和前期のデザイン啓蒙活動をめぐって」『デザイン学研究』54(6). [Sun, D., Miyazaki, K. & Higuchi, T. “Shinji Koike’s activities in the 1920s–1930s: on design enlightenment activities in the early Showa period,” Bulletin of JSSD] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jssdj/54/6/54_KJ00004914376/_article/-char/ja/
  4. 孫大雄・宮崎清・樋口孝之 (2008)「1940年代における小池新二の活動：「工芸の決別」から「インダストリアル・デザイン」へ」『デザイン学研究』55(3), 1-10. [Sun, D., Miyazaki, K. & Higuchi, T. “Shinji Koike’s activities in the 1940s: from ‘a break with kogei’ to ‘industrial design’,” Bulletin of JSSD] https://doi.org/10.11247/jssdj.55.1_3
  5. 菅靖子 (2007)「デザイン史研究とミュージアム」『デザイン学研究特集号』14(3), 7-12. [Suga, Y. “Design history research and the museum,” Special Issue of the Bulletin of JSSD] https://doi.org/10.11247/jssds.14.3_7
  6. 向井周太郎 (1985)「環境形成の思想と今後の課題：ウルム造形大学をめぐって」『デザイン学研究』1985(53), 9-12. [Mukai, S. “The idea of environmental formation and its future tasks: on the Ulm School of Design,” Bulletin of JSSD] https://doi.org/10.11247/jssdj.1985.9_3
  7. 庄子晃子 (1994)「商工省工芸指導所の仙台本所時代の東北工芸産業振興策」『デザイン学研究特集号』2(1), 6-9. [Shoji, A. “Policies for promoting the Tohoku craft industry during the Sendai head office period of the Industrial Arts Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry,” Special Issue of the Bulletin of JSSD] https://doi.org/10.11247/jssds.2.1_6
  8. 藪亨 (2003)「デザイン史の現状と課題」『デザイン理論』42, 77-90. [Yabu, T. “The current state and tasks of design history,” Design Theory (Journal of the Japan Society of Design)] https://ir.library.osaka-u.ac.jp/repo/ouka/all/53069/jjsd42_077.pdf
  9. 谷本尚子 (2017)「書評 藪亨著『デザイン史：その歴史，理論，批評』」『デザイン学研究』106-109. [Tanimoto, N. “Book review: Toru Yabu, Design History: Its History, Theory, and Criticism,” Bulletin of JSSD] https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1571980077704896512
  10. 梅宮弘光 (1998) “Educational system and its change of Shin-Kenchiku-Kohgei-Gakuin: a private school of design in 1930’s Japan”『人間科学研究』(神戸大学) 15-26. [Umemiya, H., in Human Sciences Research (Kobe University)] https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1570291226836237952
  11. 千葉大学工学部「学部概要（沿革）」[Chiba University, Faculty of Engineering, “Faculty overview (history)”] https://www.f-eng.chiba-u.jp/outline/outline.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  12. 筑波大学「沿革」[University of Tsukuba, “History”] https://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/about/outline-history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  13. 筑波大学芸術系「芸術系について」[University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Art and Design, “About the Faculty of Art and Design”] https://www.geijutsu.tsukuba.ac.jp/faculty/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  14. 京都工芸繊維大学「大学の歴史」[Kyoto Institute of Technology, “History of the university”] https://www.kit.ac.jp/uni_index/principle/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  15. 名古屋市立大学「芸術工学部・芸術工学研究科の歴史」[Nagoya City University, “History of the School of Design and Architecture and the Graduate School of Design and Architecture”] https://www.nagoya-cu.ac.jp/70years/meishidai-history/academics/grad-sda/history/history-no3.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  16. 情報科学芸術大学院大学（IAMAS）「沿革」[Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), “History”] https://www.iamas.ac.jp/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  17. 専門学校桑沢デザイン研究所「桑沢のあゆみ」[Kuwasawa Design School, “The course of Kuwasawa”] https://www.kds.ac.jp/about/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  18. 東京藝術大学デザイン科「デザイン科の概要」[Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Design, “Overview of the Department of Design”] https://design.geidai.ac.jp/about/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  19. 神戸芸術工科大学「建学の理念・沿革」[Kobe Design University, “Founding philosophy and history”] https://www.kobe-du.ac.jp/about/vision/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  20. 東京文化財研究所「物故者記事：小池新二」[Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, “Obituary article: Shinji Koike”] https://www.tobunken.go.jp/materials/bukko/10239.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  21. 九州大学 Center for Design Fundamentals Research (2015)「高次のデザイン（小池新二）」[Kyushu University, Center for Design Fundamentals Research, “Higher-order design (Shinji Koike)”] https://www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp/lexicon/2015/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  22. 九州大学 (2003)「共生し飛躍する 九州大学と九州芸術工科大学 統合！」[Kyushu University, “Coexisting and leaping forward: Kyushu University and the Kyushu Institute of Design merge!”] https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/ja/topics/view/1047/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  23. 大阪公立大学 生活科学部「沿革」[Osaka Metropolitan University, School of Human Life and Ecology, “History”] https://www.omu.ac.jp/life/about/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  24. 東京大学人工物工学研究センター「沿革」[University of Tokyo, Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering, “History”] http://race.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  25. 多摩美術大学「沿革」[Tama Art University, “History”] https://www.tamabi.ac.jp/about/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  26. 東京藝術大学大学院映像研究科「概要」[Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, “Overview”] https://www.geidai.ac.jp/department/gs_fnm/outline (accessed 2026-08-31)
  27. 武蔵野美術大学「沿革」[Musashino Art University, “History”] https://www.musabi.ac.jp/outline/about/history/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  28. 武蔵野美術大学「基礎デザイン学科の創設とその時代：向井周太郎先生の考えをもとに」[Musashino Art University, “The founding of the Department of Science of Design and its era: based on the thinking of Professor Shutaro Mukai”] https://2029mag.musabi.ac.jp/archive/108/ (accessed 2026-08-31)

Learned Societies and Scholarly Communities

  1. 日本デザイン学会「学会概要」[Japan Society for the Science of Design, “Society overview”] https://jssd.jp/about (accessed 2026-08-31)
  2. 日本デザイン学会「組織・運営」[Japan Society for the Science of Design, “Organization and management”] https://jssd.jp/about/organization-and-management (accessed 2026-08-31)
  3. 日本デザイン学会「役員一覧」[Japan Society for the Science of Design, “Board of directors”] https://jssd.jp/about/organization-and-management/board-of-directors (accessed 2026-08-31)
  4. 日本デザイン学会「会員」[Japan Society for the Science of Design, “Members”] https://jssd.jp/member (accessed 2026-08-31)
  5. 日本デザイン学会「教育部会」[Japan Society for the Science of Design, “Education subcommittee”] http://jssd.jp/about/section-and-branch/education-group (accessed 2026-08-31)
  6. 意匠学会「沿革（年表）」[Japan Society of Design, “History (chronology)”] https://www.japansocietyofdesign.com/ja/about/?id=4 (accessed 2026-08-31)
  7. 意匠学会「運営組織」[Japan Society of Design, “Management organization”] http://www.japansocietyofdesign.com/outline/management.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  8. 芸術工学会 公式サイト [Design Research Association, official website] https://sdafst.or.jp/main/index.php (accessed 2026-08-31)
  9. 日本感性工学会「概要」[Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, “Overview”] https://www.jske.org/about/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  10. 日本感性工学会「学会案内」[Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, “Society guide”] https://archives.jske.org/abouts (accessed 2026-08-31)
  11. 日本感性工学会「役員一覧」[Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, “Board of directors”] https://www.jske.org/director/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  12. 日本図学会「学会の歴史」[Japan Society for Graphic Science, “History of the society”] https://www.graphicscience.jp/about/7_list_detail.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  13. 日本図学会「歴代役員」[Japan Society for Graphic Science, “Past officers”] https://www.graphicscience.jp/yakuin/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  14. ヒューマンインタフェース学会「設立趣意書」[Human Interface Society, “Prospectus for establishment”] https://jp.his.gr.jp/guide/outline/old-establishment/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  15. 情報処理学会「60年史：ヒューマンコンピュータインタラクション研究会」[Information Processing Society of Japan, “60-year history: Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction”] https://www.ipsj.or.jp/60anv/60nenshi/3-2-2-2.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  16. IASDR “Member Societies” https://iasdr.net/member-societies/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  17. 松岡由幸 researchmap プロフィール [Yoshiyuki Matsuoka, researchmap profile] https://researchmap.jp/read0050680 (accessed 2026-08-31)
  18. 大井尚行 researchmap プロフィール [Naoyuki Oi, researchmap profile] https://researchmap.jp/read0188521 (accessed 2026-08-31)
  19. 東北芸術工科大学 (2024)「芸術工学会 2024年度春期大会」[Tohoku University of Art and Design, “Design Research Association, Spring 2024 Conference”] https://www.tuad.ac.jp/news/events/20793/ (accessed 2026-08-31)

Theoretical Schools

  1. 吉川弘之 (1987)「一般設計学」『人工知能』2(3), 273-279. [Yoshikawa, H. “General design theory,” Journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence] https://doi.org/10.11517/jjsai.2.3_273
  2. 吉川弘之 (2020)『一般デザイン学』岩波書店. [Yoshikawa, H. General Design Theory, Iwanami Shoten] https://www.iwanami.co.jp/book/b496842.html
  3. Tomiyama, T. & Yoshikawa, H. (1986) “Extended General Design Theory” in Design Theory in Computer-Aided Design, North-Holland, 95-130. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Extended-general-design-theory-Tomiyama-Yoshikawa/ce1e32f02ba8a0431cbfcf956185294ffd5b305a
  4. 古賀広志 (2019)「デザインサイエンス研究の系譜と課題」『日本情報経営学会誌』38(4), 36-56. [Koga, H. “The genealogy and tasks of design science research,” Journal of the Japan Society for Information and Management] https://doi.org/10.20627/jsim.38.4_36
  5. 八重樫文・磯邉美香・三好春陽 (2023)「デザイン研究における今日的課題の検討」『デザイン科学研究』(立命館大学) 2, 51-68. [Yaegashi, K., Isobe, M. & Miyoshi, H. “An examination of contemporary issues in design research,” Research on Design Science (Ritsumeikan University)] https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/rcds/file/2023/6_rcds_2_yaegashi_isobe_miyoshi.pdf
  6. 入江繁樹 (2015)「〈用〉とは何か：柳宗悦の民藝美学における〈用即美〉の構造をめぐって」『デザイン理論』66, 17-30. [Irie, S. “What is ‘use’?: on the structure of ‘use is beauty’ in Soetsu Yanagi’s mingei aesthetics,” Design Theory] https://ir.library.osaka-u.ac.jp/repo/ouka/all/56359/jjsd66_017.pdf
  7. Nagamachi, M. (1995) “Kansei Engineering: A new ergonomic consumer-oriented technology for product development” International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 15(1), 3-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-8141(94)00052-5
  8. Nagamachi, M. (2002) “Kansei Engineering in Consumer Product Design” Ergonomics in Design 10(2), 5-9. https://doi.org/10.1177/106480460201000203
  9. Lévy, P. (2013) “Beyond Kansei Engineering: The Emancipation of Kansei Design” International Journal of Design 7(2), 83-94. http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/1097/581
  10. 安河内朗 (2011)「日本の生理人類学の動向：第一報」『日本生理人類学会誌』16(2), 59-66. [Yasukouchi, A. “Trends in physiological anthropology in Japan: first report,” Journal of the Japan Society of Physiological Anthropology] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjpa/16/2/16_KJ00007297275/_article/-char/ja/
  11. Teasley, S., Adriasola, I. & Traganou, J. (2017) “Design and Society in Modern Japan: An Introduction” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 28, 1-50. https://doi.org/10.1353/roj.2016.0021
  12. Jones, J. C.（工芸財団・大阪デザイン振興懇談会 編訳）(1969)『デザインの方法論：J.クリストファー・ジョーンズ論文抄録』. [Jones, J. C., edited and translated by the Kogei Foundation and the Osaka Design Promotion Council, Design Methodology: Abstracts of Papers by J. Christopher Jones] https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB03643675
  13. Alexander, C.（稲葉武司 訳）(1978)『形の合成に関するノート』鹿島出版会. [Alexander, C., translated by Takeshi Inaba, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Kajima Institute Publishing] https://kajima-publishing.co.jp/books/sd-books/jtn9nqjbb4/
  14. 安藤拓生・八重樫文 (2024)「デザイン経営の議論の整理と研究課題の導出」『デザイン科学研究』(立命館大学) 4(1), 131-146. [Ando, T. & Yaegashi, K. “Organizing the discussion of design management and deriving research questions,” Research on Design Science (Ritsumeikan University)] https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/rcds/file/2024/7_rcds_4.pdf
  15. 赤坂文弥・中谷桃子・木村篤信 (2020)「サービスデザインに関する多様な研究アプローチの可視化と今後の連携に向けた考察」『サービソロジー論文誌』4(1), 10-17. [Akasaka, F., Nakatani, M. & Kimura, A. “Visualizing the diverse research approaches to service design and considerations toward future collaboration,” Journal of Serviceology] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjs/4/1/4_10/_article/-char/ja
  16. 山内裕・佐藤那央 (2016)「サービスデザイン再考：相互主観性からの視座」『マーケティングジャーナル』35(3), 64-74. [Yamauchi, Y. & Sato, N. “Rethinking service design: a perspective from intersubjectivity,” Japan Marketing Journal] https://doi.org/10.7222/marketing.2016.005
  17. 川喜田二郎 (1967)『発想法：創造性開発のために』中央公論新社. [Kawakita, J. Hassoho: For the Development of Creativity, Chuokoron-Shinsha] https://www.chuko.co.jp/shinsho/2017/06/180136.html
  18. Krippendorff, K.（小林昭世ほか 訳）(2009)『意味論的転回：デザインの新しい基礎理論』エスアイビー・アクセス. [Krippendorff, K., translated by Akiyo Kobayashi and others, The Semantic Turn: A New Foundation for Design, SIB Access] https://www.hanmoto.com/bd/isbn/9784434130335

Empirical Work on Academic Cliques and University Hiring

  1. Horta, H., Sato, M. & Yonezawa, A. (2011) “Academic inbreeding: exploring its characteristics and rationale in Japanese universities using a qualitative perspective” Asia Pacific Education Review 12(1), 35-44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9126-9
  2. Horta, H. (2022) “Academic Inbreeding: Academic Oligarchy, Effects, and Barriers to Change” Minerva 60(4), 593-613. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-022-09469-6
  3. Shibayama, S. (2022) “Development of originality under inbreeding: A case of life science labs in Japan” Higher Education Quarterly 76(1), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12315
  4. Horta, H. & Yonezawa, A. (2013) “Going places: exploring the impact of intra-sectoral mobility on research productivity and communication behaviors in Japanese academia” Asia Pacific Education Review 14, 537-547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9279-4
  5. Kato, M. (2023) “Careers of faculty with foreign degrees: The attributes and impact on academic ranks in Japan” International Journal of Educational Development 99, 102754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102754
  6. 加藤真紀 (2024)「大学教員公募における競争：東京都の公立大学教員採用選考を事例として」『名古屋高等教育研究』24, 181-202. [Kato, M. “Competition in open calls for university faculty: the case of faculty recruitment at public universities in Tokyo,” Nagoya Journal of Higher Education] https://web.cshe.nagoya-u.ac.jp/publication/journal/img/no24/11.pdf
  7. 山本清 (2020)「大学教員の人事評価」『高等教育研究』23, 97-118. [Yamamoto, K. “Personnel evaluation of university faculty,” Japanese Journal of Higher Education Research] https://doi.org/10.32116/jaher.23.0_97
  8. Clauset, A., Arbesman, S. & Larremore, D. B. (2015) “Systematic inequality and hierarchy in faculty hiring networks” Science Advances 1(1), e1400005. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1400005
  9. Lee, E., Clauset, A. & Larremore, D. B. (2021) “The Dynamics of Faculty Hiring Networks” EPJ Data Science 10, 48. https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.02949
  10. Chen, Y., Kang, Y. et al. (2025) “Where are GIScience Faculty Hired from? Analyzing Faculty Mobility and Research Themes Through Hiring Networks” Cartography and Geographic Information Science. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09043
  11. Anil, S. et al. (2018) “Genealogy tree: understanding academic lineage of authors via algorithmic and visual analysis” arXiv:1803.02352. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.02352
  12. 科学技術・学術政策研究所 (2016)『科学技術指標2016』2.2.3(3)「大学教員の出身校の多様化」. [National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, Japanese Science and Technology Indicators 2016, 2.2.3(3) “Diversification of university faculty’s alma maters”] https://www.nistep.go.jp/sti_indicator/2016/RM251_28.html
  13. Slepykh, V. (2025) “Academic inbreeding and productivity of STEM early career researchers in different environments” Research Policy 54(6), 105240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105240
  14. 文部科学省 (2024)「学校教員統計調査（令和4年度確定値）」[Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, “School Teachers Survey (FY2022 final figures)”] https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/chousa01/kyouin/gaiyou/chousa/1268564.htm (accessed 2026-08-31)

Primary Sources Used for the Faculty Composition Tally

  1. 京都工芸繊維大学 デザイン・建築学系「教員一覧」[Kyoto Institute of Technology, Faculty of Design and Architecture, “Faculty list”] https://www.design-architecture.kit.ac.jp/ja/faculty/?c=2 (accessed 2026-08-31)
  2. 武蔵野美術大学 基礎デザイン学科「教員一覧」[Musashino Art University, Department of Science of Design, “Faculty list”] https://www.musabi.ac.jp/course/undergraduate/scd/faculty/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  3. 神戸芸術工科大学 生産・工芸デザイン学科「教員一覧」[Kobe Design University, Department of Product and Craft Design, “Faculty list”] https://www.kobe-du.ac.jp/education/pc/ (accessed 2026-08-31)
  4. researchmap（各教員の公開プロフィール、学歴の確認に使用）[researchmap, public profiles of individual faculty, used to confirm educational background] https://researchmap.jp/ (accessed 2026-08-31)

The correspondence between individual faculty researchmap URLs and educational backgrounds is recorded in the internal ledger source/review/japan-design-research-genealogy/papers.md. This published note gives only aggregate figures and no individual names.

Primary Sources Used to Reconstruct the Succession of Presidents

The names and terms of the past presidents were established by reading the scanned PDFs of the following sources directly. URLs for individual issues are recorded in the internal ledger.

  1. Japan Society for the Science of Design, colophons of the Bulletin of JSSD (from No.2, 1960, through 2019). https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jssdj/list/-char/ja (accessed 2026-08-31)
  2. Japan Society for the Science of Design, colophons of the Special Issue of Japanese Society for the Science of Design (from vol.1, 1993, through vol.26, 2019). https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jssds/list/-char/ja (accessed 2026-08-31)
  3. Japan Society for the Science of Design, “Society News / Editor’s Postscript,” Bulletin of JSSD No.2 (1960). Reports the FY1960 re-election of Masaru Katsumi as chair
  4. Japan Society for the Science of Design, Newsletter No.138–No.161 (1997–2002), carried in the Special Issue, vols. 5–10. Contains rosters of officers, presidential election results, and general meeting materials
  5. Kobayashi, A. (2023) “Introduction of Japanese Society for the Science of Design,” Oukan 17(1), 47-48. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/trafst/17/1/17_47/_pdf/-char/ja
  6. Chiba University, “Emeritus Professors.” https://www.chiba-u.ac.jp/about/professor/honorary.html (accessed 2026-08-31)
  7. Ono, E., Emoto, K., Miyazaki, K., Suzuki, T., Uehara, M. & Aoki, H. (1986) “On Chair Design for Handicapped, No.3,” Bulletin of JSSD No.55. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jssdj/1986/55/1986_KJ00007024274/_pdf/-char/ja
  8. Inatsugu, T. (1987) “Current Issues in the Science of Design,” Bulletin of JSSD No.58. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jssdj/1987/58/_contents/-char/ja
  9. Harada, T., Mori, N. & Sugiyama, K. (1993) “Inquiring into Image Using Genetics Algorithm,” Bulletin of JSSD 40(2). https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jssdj/40/2/_contents/-char/ja
  10. Sato, H. & Harada, A. (2001) “Layer Structure in Visual Perception of Equivocal Patterns,” Bulletin of JSSD 48(1). https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jssdj/48/1/_contents/-char/ja
  11. Hachima, S. & Sugiyama, K. (2004) “Building the Evaluation Scale for View from a Motorway,” Bulletin of JSSD 50(6). https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jssdj/50/6/_contents/-char/ja

Unverified Items

Collected here are the statements in this note that could not be confirmed in primary sources.

  • The first president of the Japan Society for the Science of Design. The society’s own accounts split between Masaru Katsumi (at the founding in August 1953) and Shinji Koike (elected at the first general meeting in 1954), and the question is unsettled
  • The affiliations of Masaru Katsumi and Kazuo Akashi during their terms. Secondary sources disagree, and the affiliation lines on their papers did not settle it [requires primary verification]
  • The affiliations of Toshimasa Yamanaka (Faculty of Art and Design, University of Tsukuba) and Yoshiyuki Matsuoka (Keio University) during their terms. These rest on researchmap entries and, unlike the other presidents, were not confirmed on the affiliation lines of their papers [requires primary verification]
  • The exact transitions between presidents at the boundaries 1985/1986, 2007/2010, and 2011/2012. The publication intervals of the colophons fix these only to the year
  • The term of Naoyuki Oi at the Design Research Association. The entry on researchmap (June 2021–May 2023) contradicts his appearance as “president of the Design Research Association” in the announcement of the 2024 conference [requires primary verification]
  • The presidents of the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering from the first through the thirteenth term, and whether Mitsuo Nagamachi was its first president [requires primary verification]
  • The founding date of the Japan Society of Basic Design and Art (some sources give 19 July 1990) and the launch year of its journal Basic Design (1992). The primary page returned a 404 and could not be reached [requires primary verification]
  • The characterization of Chiba University’s Department of Industrial Design as “Japan’s first university design department.” No peer-reviewed paper or official document verifying this could be reached [requires primary verification]
  • Whether Shutaro Mukai was the first chair of the Department of Science of Design at Musashino Art University at its founding (1967). That the founders were both Kimimasa Abe and Mukai was confirmed in university publicity, but no statement about the first chair could be confirmed [requires primary verification]
  • The founding year of the Kyushu Institute of Design (1968) and its original departmental structure. The year of the merger (1 October 2003) was established from Kyushu University’s official material, but the history of the former university itself could not be reached on official pages [requires primary verification]
  • Regarding the NISTEP self-institution rate: the specific values for earlier years to compare against 32.6% (FY2013), the specific values by founding body (national, public, private), and the definition of the field categories (which category fine arts and design fall into). None of these figures are stated in the text and none could be established, so they are not included in this note
  • The number of universities studied, the number of interviewees, and the year of fieldwork in Horta, Sato & Yonezawa (2011). The full text could not be reached, so the sample size cannot be given [requires primary verification]
  • The portion of the faculty alma mater tally that could not be obtained. The educational backgrounds of 5 faculty at the Kyoto Institute of Technology, 5 at Kobe Design University, and 1 at Musashino Art University could not be confirmed. In addition, the evidence for the educational backgrounds of 4 faculty at Musashino Art University rests on secondary sources and has not been re-confirmed against the university’s official pages or researchmap [requires primary verification]
  • The faculty list for the Design Course at Chiba University. Because the official page is dynamically generated, the denominator could not be obtained and it was excluded from the tally

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