This project will explore the notion of identity in Japanese material culture, which Japan used to refashion itself post-war; domestically and abroad. In this design played a pivotal role, allowing Japan to create culturally neutral and Western influenced products for export, whilst maintaining cultural integrity in domestic designs. However this created a perceived tension between two cultural identities; traditional Japanese aesthetics and philosophies that, coupled with their relatively rapid but largely un-integrated industrialisation, were at odds with their external impression of modern, technological design. It was not until the ‘bubble economy years’ of 1986–91 in which a new-found confidence in Japanese identity, coupled with the rise in domestic demand affecting production for export, led to a new, more coherent and culturally informed Japanese design identity that made use of Western techniques whilst being integrated with a more Japanese aesthetic. This research will examine design during these seminal years, and the consequences that domestic consumption had in influencing a new Japanese aesthetic and cultural identity.

Initially the research method will be historically based, examining available primary material. Examples include the influential magazines of the period: Aidea magazine, and Dezain No Genba (Designer's Workshop), and other aspects of Japanese 1980s material and visual culture such as the popular television series, Oshin. From this, ideas about the type of designs, styles, and key concerns and trends in this period can be identified for further and more in-depth study. Concurrently secondary sources of economic and cultural histories will be accessed for context, such as Japan Since 1980 (Cargill and Sakamoto, 2008) and Assembled in Japan (Partner, 1999), and more critical texts on Japanese culture, whilst bearing in mind the change in attitudes and ideas concerning the other, exoticisation, and cultural imperialism; as well as cultural theorists such as Bourdieu for his work on ‘cultural capital’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’. Finally, further primary research will be conducted in Japan, using Japanese language sources and more extensive archives held there to investigate in more depth the historical, material and cultural significance of the research, and provide more significant material for analysis.