TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD 2026 Results Announced: Misuzu Akimoto and Doshu Tokumoto Win the Grand Prix

On October 16, 2026, Tokyo Midtown Management announced the results of “TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD 2026,” an open call in two categories, design and art. From a total of 1,579 entries, Misuzu Akimoto’s “Soft Building Blocks” won the Grand Prix in the design competition and Doshu Tokumoto’s “Wave Goodbye, Waves” won the Grand Prix in the art competition. Each receives prize money of ¥1 million. The 16 award-winning and selected works were on display at Plaza B1 of Tokyo Midtown (Akasaka, Minato City) until Sunday, November 8.

Design competition: 1,284 entries on the theme “Care”

The 19th design competition, on the theme “Care,” called for designs that embody the imagination to care for others in an era when division is decried and everyone harbors anxiety, and drew 1,284 entries. The Grand Prix work, “Soft Building Blocks,” consists of building blocks soft enough to squash when gripped hard. According to the designer, the idea came from watching a small child carry tofu from miso soup to the mouth by hand without crushing it, which led to a focus on the bodily sense of unconsciously adjusting one’s strength to whatever one touches.

The runner-up prize went to Kentaro Tanaka and Keita Tsujimura’s “Buddha’s Face Gum,” a play on the Japanese saying that even the Buddha’s patience has its limits, which aims to wrap moments of anger in humor and visualize one’s capacity for patience. The Excellence Award went to Kaoru Karumai and Hajime Sunada’s “Origin Business Cards,” which add the meaning and origin of a person’s name to their business card, turning it from a “symbol” of affiliation and title into “information” that expresses the person and their roots. The judges’ general comments said that none of the proposals separated those who care from those who are cared for, and that all reframed relationships between people through familiar tools and acts.

The judges were Jin Kuramoto (product designer), Kaoru Sugano (creative director/creative technologist), Hiroshi Nakamura (architect), Tamae Hirokawa (creative director/designer) and Yu Yamada (buyer).

Art competition: A work layering Tsuruga’s nuclear plant and “tamashii-nuki” rites wins the Grand Prix

The art competition was also in its 19th edition, and six works advanced to the final round from 295 entries. Explaining the Grand Prix work, the artist says that Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, where the artist lives, faces rapid aging and population decline following the decommissioning of the fast-breeder reactor “Monju,” and that Buddhist services called “tamashii-nuki” (soul removal), held to dispose of family altars with no one to inherit them, have increased sharply in recent years. The work layers these two phenomena, attempting to reframe the debate over nuclear power not as a binary of for and against but as a reality entangled with the memories of local communities and family lines.

The runner-up prize went to Harumi Yamanaka’s “Who is sitting there?”, created on the theme of the intergenerational transmission of trauma, starting from the war PTSD of the artist’s great-grandfather, who lost family members in an air raid. The Excellence Award went to Kanako Hiramatsu’s “Fountain (cafe cup),” which treats the small flows inside a café cup as a private “fountain” and visualizes them as a three-dimensional object made of successive painted planes. The judges were Kodama Kanazawa (contemporary art curator), Kensho Tambara (artist/curator), Junya Yamaide (art producer), Suzuko Yamada (architect) and Akira Wakita (artist/professor at Keio University).

19 editions since 2008, with product launches and commissioned works

The award has been held since 2008 to discover and support the next generation of designers and artists and to pursue collaborations beyond that, and applicants over 19 years total 28,771. Examples cited include the product “Ohanashi Origami ORIGAMI TALE” (2015) and, as a commissioned work, “Heart of the World,” shown at Roppongi Art Night 2025. It is a mechanism through which the operator of a neighborhood discovers creators through an open call and continues to collaborate with them after the award.

This year again, partner companies present “Partner Awards”: Misuzu Akimoto receives an invitation to the studio of Ripple Collective in Abu Dhabi, along with opportunities for exhibitions and joint projects, and Kanako Hiramatsu receives an exhibition of the work at Mitsui Designtec’s head office (subject to change depending on social conditions). The award is certified under “This is MECENAT 2026,” the certification program of the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts.

Award exhibition and audience award

During the exhibition, a popular vote by visitors will decide the “Tokyo Midtown Audience Award,” with the result to be announced on the official website in late November. Other awards are covered in our roundup of major awards in 2026 and our article on the Good Design Award.

Overview

Name: TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD 2026 Exhibition of Award-Winning and Selected Works
Dates: Friday, October 9 – Sunday, November 8, 2026
Venue: Tokyo Midtown Plaza B1 (Akasaka, Minato City)
Organizer: Tokyo Midtown
Official website: https://www.tokyo-midtown.com/jp/award/
*Information as of October 21, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Design competition Grand Prix, Misuzu Akimoto, “Soft Building Blocks” (from Tokyo Midtown Management Co., Ltd.’s press release)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on an announcement by Tokyo Midtown Management Co., Ltd. (October 16, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team