Naoto Fukasawa

Naoto Fukasawa was born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1956. He graduated from Tama Art University’s Product Design Department in 1980. In 1989, he moved to the United States, where he joined ID Two (now IDEO San Francisco). Having honed his craft for seven years, focusing mainly on Silicon Valley industries, and returned to Japan in 1996. Fukasawa established and headed up IDEO’s Tokyo office, creating a Japanese design consultant base for the company. He went independent in 2003 and founded NAOTO FUKASAWA DESIGN.

Currently, Fukasawa designs for a wide range of leading brands worldwide in Italy, Germany, America, Switzerland, Spain, China, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Portugal, Sweden, and Finland, as well as consulting and designing for local Japanese companies. His designs span a variety of fields, from precision electronic equipment to furniture, interior spaces, and architecture.

Fukasawa is the curator of The Japan Folk Crafts Museum. He is a vice president at Tama Art University and one of the directors of 21_21 Design Sight. He also sits on the design advisory board of Muji and is the art director of Maruni. He was the Good Design Award chairman from 2010 to 2014. He has been accorded the title of Royal Designer for Industry (Royal Society of Arts). He was awarded the Isamu Noguchi Award in 2018.