This innovation workshop, held in Kochi University of Technology, was a three-day collaboration between staff and students from RCA, Kochi University of Technology, and from Tokyo University iSchool, as well as invited local stakeholders, such as craftspeople and staff from the Tosayama outdoor environmental education centre.

The workshop was the culmination of a 10 day Japanese cultural immersion field trip by RCA students. As such, it drew on their experiences during the immersion of local crafts, culture and natural heritage, and their exposure to socio-economic challenges of the area. Kochi City and the surrounding Kochi Prefecture, in Southeast Japan were chosen to reflect more typical Japanese life outside the Tokyo megalopolis. Students’ briefing included the following instruction:

You’ll meet people who have lived all their lives in Kochi; you will see how they work and play, visit their homes, prepare and eat their food, and even sleep under the same roof. You are expected to tune in to all that is around you, to experience your time here both as a visiting foreign tourist, and as a designer/innovator: critical, curious and alert to opportunities. Pay attention, notice everything.

The workshop served as a focus for their immersion into Japanese culture, setting a specific objective: their contextual research was to be applied, through design-led innovation methods, to answer the question ‘how can Kochi prefecture attract more foreign visitors and lifestyle migrants?’ Students worked in mixed groups to deliver concept proposals (product/service/system) at the end of the workshop to a panel of judges.

This workshop is itself one of an ongoing series, the outcomes of which are intended to be collectively published as short book and/or exhibition in Japan and London.

Learning Objectives:
Understand how design methods, such as experiential research and prototyping, can generate new insights leading to innovation.
Practice cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary collaboration in innovation.
Increased awareness of and sensitivity to Japanese culture, and its influence in design.