Japan Sign Design Award (as known as SDA Award) sponsored by Japan Sign Design Association (SDA) was established in 1966 for the purpose of promoting and educating the public about the sign design through presentation of signature design works to the wide society and it continues to be the only award program for sign design in Japan.
Sign Design is the creative act of arranging and shaping “information to be conveyed to people” in order to make the increasingly complex environment around us more comprehensible and attractive. Sign design is positioned as information that is indispensable for communication, and its design is expanding in a diverse range of ways. SDA’s mission is to evaluate high quality sign design through the selection of the Japan Sign Design Award, to share the value and role of sign design with as many people as possible, and to contribute to social activities. We look forward to your active participation.
Monday, April 1, 2025 to Friday, May 30 closes at 24:00 JST
Primary screening
Friday, June 6, 2025 to Sunday, June 15 Web-based screening
Secondary selection
Friday, June 20, 2025
Final selection, SDA Contribution Award selection
Saturday, July 5, 2025 in Tokyo
Award Announcement
Early September 2025
Award Ceremony
Friday, December 5, 2025 in Tokyo
Publication on the SDA website
Early December 2025
Publication in the Yearbook and Panel Exhibition Tour
From December 2025
Eligibility for Application
Signs completed in the year from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025.
Awards
Japan Sign Design Award Grand Prize – Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award (Provisional): 1 winner (Certificate and trophy) Japan Sign Design Award Gold Prize: 4 winners (Certificate and trophy) Japan Sign Design Award Silver Prize: 15 winners (Certificate and trophy) Japan Sign Design Award Bronze Prize: 30 winners (Certificate) Japan Sign Design Award Finalists: 100 winners (Certificate) Japan Sign Design Award Commissioned Jury Prize: One winner each selected by commissioned jury (Certificate and trophy) Japan Sign Design Award Contribution Award – Chairman of Japan Institute of Design Promotion Award: maximum 2 winners (Certificate) Number of the Grand Prize, Gold Prize, Silver Prize, Bronze Prize and selected entries will be determined by the final judging panel.
Jury
Jury President
Takeuchi Makoto President, TREI Co., Ltd. President, Japan Sign Design Association
Born in 1961 in Okayama Prefecture, he specializes in information and environmental design. His projects include signage design for public facilities, large-scale complexes, and railway stations, as well as the development of landscape and outdoor advertising guidelines across various regions. His notable works include the Shibuya Sign project, Akasaka Sacas, Fujiya Hotel, and Makita General Hospital. He has received numerous awards, including the SDA Grand Prize, the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award, and the Integrated Reporting IJP Visual & Advertising Award (Grand Prize). He has served as a landscape advisor for Ichinomiya City, an urban planning consultant for Shinjuku Ward, a lecturer at Toyo Institute of Art and Design, and is a licensed first-class architect.
SDA Jury: Juries of selected SDA members (In alphabetical order, titles omitted)
Watanabe Taro Representative, Emotional Space Design Inc. Art Director Vice President, Japan Sign Design Association
Born in Tokyo in 1964. Graduated from Tama Art University in 1991 with a degree in graphic design, and established Emotional Space Design Inc. in 1998.
He has collaborated with leading Japanese architects and lighting designers on numerous space design projects, and has received numerous awards including the SDA Award, Good Design Award, and other design awards, including the Grand Prize, Gold Award, and Silver Award. His main areas of expertise include environmental graphics and signage design, including color planning, and visual identity design for the revitalization of companies and facilities.
He is a board member of the Kukan Design Organization and a part-time lecturer at Joshibi University of Art and Design.
YAMADA KOZO Representative, Tsukikage Design Consulting Design Consultant Vice President, Japan Sign Design Association
YAMADA KOZO
Representative, Tsukikage Design Consulting Design Consultant Vice President, Japan Sign Design Association
Born in 1954 in Aichi Prefecture. Graduated from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music.
Joined GK Industrial Design Institute (now GK Design Group) in 1979, and became president of GK-DSH, a joint venture between GK and Mazda, and president of GK Design Organization (GK Design Group headquarters) in 2012. After serving as Senior Advisor, he has been in his current position since 2021. He is convinced that design is “imagination” to go back and forth between the past and the future, and “aesthetic sense” to change society.
He is a board member of the Kukan Design Organization and a fellow judge of the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (G-Mark).
Born in Aichi Prefecture, he specializes in graphic design, with a focus on visual identity, signage planning, and branding for cultural institutions such as museums, educational organizations, and corporations. His major projects include the Artizon Museum, the development of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic sports pictograms, art direction for Loft, and work for the Ishikawa Prefectural Library.
Born in 1980 in Nara Prefecture, he graduated from Meiji University’s Department of Architecture in 2002 and completed his master’s degree at the same university in 2004. He joined Terada Design First-Class Architect Office in 2004, was appointed as director in 2014, and became president in 2021 when the firm was renamed Terada Hirate Architects. His work spans architecture, interior design, product design, signage, and graphics. He has received numerous awards, including the SDA Grand Prize, the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award, the Good Design Award, the iF Design Award, and the Japan Spatial Design Award. He is also a part-time lecturer at Musashino Art University and a licensed first-class architect.
He studied under painter Genichiro Inokuma. His notable works include the Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art in Marugame, the Kasai Rinkai Park Observation Plaza Rest House, the Horyuji Treasures Museum at the Tokyo National Museum, the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, the JR Nagoya Station New Building Redevelopment Project, and projects for the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Total Design Management for Yahata Neji Corporation, and Good Design Award VI planning. He has received numerous accolades, including the JAGDA New Designer Award, Tokyo TDC Gold Prize, SDA Grand Prize, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award, DDA Excellence Award, Good Design Award & Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman’s Award, and the Intellectual Property Achievement Award by the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry.
Regional jury(Primary screening only)
Director (Representative Secretary) from each region (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa) and one SDA Award Selection Committee member from each region, nominated by regional representative secretary.
Secondary Selection Commissioned Jury (Tentative) (In no particular order, titles omitted)
Co-founded Kontrapunkt in 1985. Teaches at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Winner of more than 20 Danish Design Awards. He has worked on visual identities for Danish ministries and national brands such as “Carlsberg” and “LEGO”. He has been a visiting professor at Musashino Art University and has a strong connection with Japan. He has designed brands for DNP, a leading Japanese printing company, TASAKI, a luxury jewelry brand, and Andersen, a famous bakery originating in Japan, and has also worked on the rebranding of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and DENSO.
Kobayashi Akira Creative Type Director, Monotype KK
After winning the Grand Prix twice in the world’s leading European typeface design contest, he has been in his current position since 2001 and lives in Germany.
His main responsibilities include typeface design production supervision, quality inspection, and planning of new typefaces. He also collaborates with renowned type designers Hermann Zapf and Adrian Frutiger on typeface production. He is the author of several books on European typeface design and how to present textual information on signs, has given numerous lectures on all aspects of typeface design, and has served on the jury of several international competitions.
She has designed many spaces for children, including “Fuji Kindergarten,” which was selected as the best school in the world by the OECD and UNESCO, and received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture from UNESCO in 2017. In Japan, she has received the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, the Japan Institute of Architects Award, the Good Design Gold Award, and the Society for Children’s Environment Award. Her publications include “Takaharu Tezuka + Yui Tezuka Architectural Catalogue 1 – 3.”
She is a part-time lecturer at Toyo University, a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo, and a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley (2006).
Hanazawa Yuji Editorial committee member for Nikkei Design
Born in Chiba, Japan in 1966, he graduated from the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in 1989, and joined Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
After working at Nikkei Business, Nikkei Restaurant, Nikkei Venture (now Nikkei Top Leader), Nikkei Information Strategy, and Nikkei Ecology, he joined the Nikkei Design Editorial Department in 2011. Served as the editor-in-chief of Nikkei Design from October 2016 to March 2023. Concurrently served as the deputy editor-in-chief of Nikkei Cross Trend from April 2018.
He has conducted experimental self-driven research projects that re-established existing frameworks, and has presented and been invited to exhibit at museums and design exhibitions in Japan and abroad. Using the results of their research as a starting point, they have fulfilled various projects “creating other possibilities” with variety of clients.
Winner of numerous national and international design awards, he was listed as the Emerging Designers of the Year at Dezeen Awards 2019 (UK).
Exhibition director of 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT exhibition “Material, or “
After teaching herself design and architecture while working as a banker, she spent two and a half years at a design firm specializing in architecture and construction before starting her own business. Her work focuses on commercial spaces, particularly in the hospitality and food service industries, emphasizing the relationship between environment, operations, and visual elements. She strives to create spaces that integrate local and social considerations (“locally sourced design”) and evoke emotional responses (“emotionally moving design”), aiming to build spaces that bring joy to all those involved.
Screening Dates
Primary Selection
Web-based screening
Friday, June 6, 2025 to Sunday, June 15
Secondary Selection
Secondary Selection Meeting
Friday, June 20, 2025
Final Selection
Final Review Session
Saturday, July 5, 2025 in Tokyo
Selection Criteria
Sociality
Evaluation of the social significance and the effect of the project, such as the harmony with surrounding landscape or environment, and sustainability.
Informativeness
Evaluation of the work if it properly conveys the originator’s intention and provides appropriate communication.
Innovativeness
Evaluation of the work whether there is an unprecedented approach in the idea, the construction or the process.
Aesthetics
Evaluation of the beauty in the form, the material selection and the expression.
*In addition to the 4 items above, the entries should include safety into consideration.
Application Fee
Application fee is ¥11,000 (¥10,000 + consumption tax ¥1,000) for each entry. The application fee includes the examination fee for design concept and two image data. If you wish to submit more than one image data, additional examination fee of ¥1,650 (¥1,500 + consumption tax ¥150) is required for each additional image. If you wish to submit video data, an additional examination fee of ¥16,500 (¥15,000 + consumption tax ¥1,500) is required for each entry.
Publication in the Yearbook
The yearbook, “Annual of Spatial Design in Japan 2026 – Display, Sign and Commercial Environment” containing the works of award winners and the finalists will be published in December 2025 (scheduled) . The yearbook will be edited by Rikuyosha Inc. and the Yearbook Publication Committee formed by the members of the Kukan Design Organization, namely Japan Sign Design Association (SDA), The Japan Design Space Association (DSA) and Japan Commercial Environmental Design Association (JCD), and published by Rikuyosha Inc.
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Japan Institute of Design Promotion The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nikkei Inc. Federation of Japan Out-door Advertising Associations Japan Design Space Association Nippon Display Federation
Japan Commercial Environmental Design Association Japan Sign Association Japanese Technical Organization for Commercial Spaces Japan Promotional Marketing Institute Inc. Japan Advertising Federation Japan Advertisers Association Inc.
Japan Graphic Design Association Inc. Japan Typography Association Japan Industrial Design Association Japan Typograhy Association (In no particular order)