About
Enabling meaningful, equitable transformation
The world faces unprecedented challenges that demand creative, collaborative solutions grounded in both imagination and responsibility. Design has the power to reshape systems, elevate communities, and build futures where people and planet can flourish together.
This is our reason for being: Enabling meaningful and equitable transformation by empowering a generation of creative changemakers with not just the skills to design, but the vision and values to lead change with intention, integrity, and lasting impact.
Nurturing changemakers
At UTokyo Design, we are on a mission to nurture changemakers, future shapers, creative catalysts who take an interdisciplinary approach, are design-led, and issue-focused.
We empower them to think critically across disciplines, create courageously with purpose, and act responsibly toward communities and the environment. Through interdisciplinary, design-led learning focused on real-world issues, our graduates emerge equipped to challenge inequity, reimagine systems, and drive the transformation our world urgently needs.
Dean’s Message
100 Students...
100 Pathways...
100 Transformations
A message from the Dean (prospective) to our future first-year students
UTokyo College of Design (UTokyo Design) is new — we are reimagining education because the world needs it. Today’s challenges are complex, interconnected, and constantly evolving, demanding more than single disciplines or established expertise can offer. We believe that broad interdisciplinary knowledge combined with the creative power of design is essential for shaping meaningful change in society. Our aim is to cultivate changemakers prepared to question norms, work across boundaries, and pursue their own definition of excellence.
We are not simply creating more designers. We are expanding what design is and who it is for. Design is not just about polished outputs or aesthetics. It is a way of discovering what matters, a language for collaboration, and a catalyst for imagining and building futures that do not yet exist. At UTokyo Design, design is yours to define, stretch, challenge, and reinvent.
Miles Pennington
Dean (Prospective)
Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo
Miles Pennington is Professor of Design Led Innovation at The University of Tokyo, where he is the Director of the DLX Design Lab. Previous to that he was at the Royal College of Art in London as the Head of Program of the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) joint Master’s program with Imperial College, he is an alumnus of the IDE program and graduated in 1992. He moved to Japan in 2017 to join The University of Tokyo where he also is Co-Director of the DLX Design Academy.
Why Japan?
In Japan, design is an integral part of life. From daily rituals to traditional craftsmanship, design shapes not just what we make, but how we see and think. Today, this philosophy lives in punctual transit systems, reimagined everyday objects, and thoughtfully designed public spaces that balance individual needs with collective harmony.
Yet Japan also faces profound challenges: an aging society, rural depopulation, disaster resilience, and preserving cultural heritage amid technological change. The discipline, humility, and resilience embedded in Japanese design reflect values essential for addressing these realities and broader global issues. Living and learning here, you’ll learn to design with the same intricacy and intentionality that surrounds you, understanding that positive change comes from deeply understanding what people value and making systems work better for everyone.
Why UTokyo?
The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) stands as Japan’s leading national university and one of Asia’s most distinguished institutions, holding a unique position in shaping society. For over 150 years, UTokyo has created entirely new fields of knowledge, from coining the Japanese word for philosophy to founding information studies and pharmaceutical sciences, driving fundamental change that extends far beyond campus. What happens here influences the direction of Japanese society and ripples globally.
Just as UTokyo once established fields that shaped modern Japan, UTokyo College of Design continues this legacy, building the next era of design to drive positive social transformation across Japan and around the world.
Why UTokyo Design?
At UTokyo College of Design (UTokyo Design), you can access world-class academic offerings across over nine major academic fields of the University of Tokyo to expand your breadth of knowledge. You’ll learn to harness design to tackle meaningful challenges and redefine what’s possible.
If you’re driven by purposeful curiosity, courageous creativity, and ethical commitment, and want to shape a more equitable future through design, we invite you to learn more about our program and join us at UTokyo Design.
