TAKUMI NEXT is a program led by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) that supports the international expansion of Japan’s craft and design sectors. The program is characterized by its comprehensive approach to craft businesses and artisans who possess exceptional skills and aesthetic sensibilities but face challenges in connecting with international markets, providing integrated support including exhibition opportunities, matchmaking with overseas buyers, and branding assistance.
In recent years, through participation in design fairs and trade shows in Europe, America, and Asia, the program has played a role in presenting Japanese craft not as “tradition” but as “products with contemporary value.” This article organizes the overview of TAKUMI NEXT, its support content, and its significance for craft production regions, explaining its practical value.
Table of Contents
What is TAKUMI NEXT? JETRO’s International Expansion Support Program for Japanese Craft
TAKUMI NEXT is an international expansion support program led by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) that specializes in Japan’s traditional craft and craft sectors. Beyond mere “export promotion,” it aims to re-edit the cultural value and aesthetic sensibilities inherent in Japanese craft to match overseas market contexts and connect them to sustainable business.
In recent years, while interest in Japanese craft has been growing overseas, there are many cases where continuous transactions do not materialize due to insufficient pricing, usage proposals, and story design. Based on these challenges, TAKUMI NEXT is characterized by providing practical support for craft businesses to become “consistently chosen” in international markets.
Program Positioning: Background of JETRO’s Focus on Craft Sector
The background to JETRO’s focus on the craft sector lies in two factors: changes in Japan’s manufacturing structure and the increasing international value of cultural resources. As the mass production, price-competitive export model reaches its limits, craft products with regional characteristics, handcrafted qualities, and narratives have been reevaluated as high-value-added sectors.
Additionally, among overseas affluent consumers, museums, and design professionals, there is a notable movement to perceive Japanese craft as “art” and “collectibles.” However, many craft businesses have primarily focused on the domestic market, making adaptation to overseas distribution structures, business customs, and contractual practices challenging.
JETRO has positioned craft as one of its growth sectors to bridge this gap and has developed a specialized support system.
The Origins and Purpose of TAKUMI NEXT
TAKUMI NEXT was born from the reflection that conventional exhibition support and business matchmaking alone were insufficient. In overseas markets, in addition to the quality of the work or product itself, there is a strong demand for contextual explanation of “why this craft is necessary in today’s era.”
The program’s purpose is to nurture Japanese craft not as one-time export products but as continuously valued brands. Therefore, participating businesses are required to have a perspective that considers overseas markets from the product development stage.
By reviewing everything from pricing design, usage proposals, series composition, to visual expression, the core of TAKUMI NEXT can be said to be presenting the “next image of craft” adapted to international markets.
Differences from Conventional Export Support Programs and Characteristics
The greatest characteristic of TAKUMI NEXT is that it is not solely aimed at transforming craft into “sellable products.” While conventional export support programs centered on trade show participation and buyer introductions, this program goes further to address how to translate and communicate the technology, history, and philosophy behind craft to overseas audiences.
Specifically, feedback from overseas curators’ and designers’ perspectives, reconstruction of storytelling, and guidance on exhibition presentation are provided. Through this, craft products are repositioned from “Japanese and beautiful things” to “expressions that function in contemporary life and spaces.”
TAKUMI NEXT serves as a practical learning opportunity for craft businesses to update both expression and business aspects while also providing export support.
Target Audience and Participation Requirements for TAKUMI NEXT
As TAKUMI NEXT is a program aimed at guiding Japanese craft to international markets, its target audience and conditions are clearly designed. Not just being traditional or possessing high technical skills, but the willingness to update expression and business models for overseas markets is emphasized.
Below, we organize which fields are targeted, the requirements for participating businesses and artisans, and the characteristics of two participation models: production region units and company units.
Target Fields: Craft Products, Design Products, Traditional Industries
The target fields of TAKUMI NEXT are highly designed daily items related to clothing, food, and housing that utilize traditional techniques and materials. Specifically, this includes interior items, tableware, fashion, stationery, furniture, and accessories. What’s important is that they are high-value-added products utilizing regional resources (technology, materials, design, etc.) and can be incorporated into contemporary lifestyles.
Not limited to fine art crafts, practical design products that fit modern lifestyles are also broadly targeted. This reflects the reality that Japanese craft in overseas markets is valued not just as “objects for appreciation” but as “items that enrich life with stories.”
Even businesses in traditional industries can participate if they leverage regional techniques and materials and possess stories that appeal to overseas markets and high design quality.
TAKUMI NEXT can be said to be a program that does not limit itself to specific craft genres but emphasizes communication ability and product quality that can clearly convey the background and dedication of products to overseas customers.
Requirements for Participating Businesses and Artisans
The greatest requirement for participating businesses and artisans is a clear intention for international expansion and flexibility to accept improvement and adjustment. While the quality of products or works is a prerequisite, what’s more important is whether they can proactively engage in pricing, specification changes, series composition, and redesign of explanatory text.
Additionally, the ability to articulate one’s techniques and background in anticipation of dialogue with overseas buyers and curators is important. While English proficiency is not necessarily a mandatory requirement in some cases, an attitude that can leverage support from JETRO and external specialists for information dissemination is required.
Since TAKUMI NEXT is a selective program, it’s important to note that not just the hope to “go overseas” but strategic planning that envisions continuous business development is evaluated.
Production Region Unit and Company Unit Participation Models
In TAKUMI NEXT, in addition to participation by individual artisans or single companies, participation models by production region units are also envisioned. In the case of production region units, the strength lies in the ability to construct a unified worldview and brand story centered on common techniques and materials with multiple businesses collaborating.
This would be effective in raising recognition as a “regional brand” in overseas markets. On the other hand, participation by company or artisan units has the characteristic of being able to leverage speed of decision-making and consistency of expression.
In either model, what’s important is not the participation format itself but clarifying who takes what role and which market to target. TAKUMI NEXT can be said to be a program that co-designs forms of international expansion according to respective scales and systems, rather than imposing a uniform success model.
Main Support Content Provided
A major characteristic of TAKUMI NEXT is its comprehensive support design that doesn’t end with “just exhibiting” for international expansion. Product development, branding, exhibition, business negotiations, and subsequent relationship building are viewed as a continuous process, aiming for a state where craft businesses can operate independently in international markets.
Below, we organize three representative support contents provided by TAKUMI NEXT: product development and branding, participation in international exhibitions, and matchmaking with overseas business partners.
Product Improvement and Communication Enhancement for Overseas Markets
In TAKUMI NEXT, market adaptation and communication enhancement through business negotiations with overseas buyers become an important process. Overseas, while the technical skills of Japanese craft are highly valued, issues are often pointed out that usage, pricing, and series composition do not match local needs.
Therefore, this program encourages reconsideration of size expansion, color schemes, and usage proposals tailored to local lifestyles through feedback from mentors and buyers. Additionally, to properly convey brand appeal, brush-up of visual expression and story organization is also pursued during business negotiation preparation.
What’s important is not to削除 traditionality, but to clarify and communicate “what core of technology and history to focus on.” Through this, craft products evolve into products that are understood and accepted in overseas markets while maintaining their cultural background.
Business Negotiation Opportunities with Overseas Buyers and Digital Communication Enhancement
TAKUMI NEXT supports recognition acquisition and sales channel development in overseas markets by focusing on online business negotiations with overseas buyers and utilizing SNS and special websites for digital promotion. Characteristic is not just providing business negotiation opportunities, but offering guidance on creating effective business negotiation materials and presentation techniques by mentors familiar with overseas markets.
In business negotiations with overseas buyers, not just product specifications but brand worldview and ability to propose usage scenarios are questioned. Therefore, specialized feedback on “presentation methods” and “communication methods” tailored to local lifestyles can be received.
Additionally, in some target markets, market validation opportunities through test marketing and local exhibitions are provided, making it possible to directly obtain reactions from buyers and consumers. The insights gained through these activities are utilized for next product improvements and marketing strategies, becoming the foundation for continuous international expansion.
Matchmaking with Overseas Buyers and Select Shops
TAKUMI NEXT’s support places emphasis on creating highly effective business negotiation opportunities. The main targets are buyers from major overseas EC businesses, select shops, and department stores, and in recent years, contact points with buyers who have museum shops and galleries as sales channels have also increased.
In overseas markets, not just selling “things” but the stories behind them and proposals tailored to local lifestyles are required. Therefore, during matchmaking, support is provided for brush-up of business negotiation materials by mentors and preparation of presentations from buyers’ perspectives, with efforts made to increase the probability of contract conclusion.
Additionally, specific requests and evaluations from buyers obtained through business negotiations become valuable guidelines for product improvement and next development. TAKUMI NEXT functions not just as providing one-time business negotiation opportunities, but also as a “place for dialogue” to build continuous business relationships.
Evaluation Criteria and Selection Perspectives Emphasized by TAKUMI NEXT
In TAKUMI NEXT, when selecting participating businesses and works, judgments are not made based solely on conventional “traditional craft-like qualities” or technical standards. What’s emphasized is the perspective of what value Japanese craft can have in overseas markets with different cultural spheres.
Therefore, in addition to legitimacy of history and techniques, contemporaneity, internationality, and editorial capability become important evaluation criteria. Below, through three selection perspectives particularly emphasized by TAKUMI NEXT, we clarify why this program aims for “next craft.”
Contemporaneity and Internationality That Don’t End with Just “Traditionality”
What TAKUMI NEXT evaluates is not whether tradition is preserved, but how tradition is connected to the contemporary. For example, even if techniques and styles are historically accurate, if they are not connected to contemporary life, spaces, and values, they may be difficult to understand in overseas markets.
Therefore, selection emphasizes whether form, usage, and scale sense are contemporary, and whether they can dialogue with international design contexts. This doesn’t mean “destroying tradition,” but can be said to question the attitude of once deconstructing and reconstructing tradition.
TAKUMI NEXT highly values the perspective of repositioning Japanese craft not as an ethnic symbol but as a contemporary expression.
Editorial Capability of Materials, Techniques, and Stories
In overseas markets, the rarity of materials and techniques alone does not lead to sufficient evaluation. Editorial capability of how to organize them as narratives, to whom, and in what context to deliver them is essential.
In TAKUMI NEXT, whether artisans and businesses can narrate the reasons for material selection, the necessity of processes, and relationships with regions as a consistent story is emphasized. For example, even with the same lacquer or clay, whether they can articulate “why that material” and “what expression can only be established with that material” greatly changes the level of international understanding.
In selection, in addition to the quality of the work itself, whether it can be presented as an edited narrative through explanatory materials and presentations becomes the subject of evaluation.
Design Philosophy for Delivering Non-Mass-Produced Crafts to Overseas Markets
Craft products are inherently not suited for mass production, and international expansion that ignores this premise is not sustainable. What TAKUMI NEXT emphasizes is design philosophy that establishes small-scale production not as a weakness but as value.
Specifically, supply models such as made-to-order or limited editions, grounds that can explain the validity of pricing, and stability of delivery time and quality are questioned. Additionally, it’s important that the design respects the production rhythm of makers and the production system of the region, rather than optimizing everything for overseas markets.
TAKUMI NEXT evaluates whether the thinking and preparation for connecting craft with international markets at the appropriate size, rather than forcibly scaling it, are in place. This can be said to be a perspective for positioning craft not as a temporary export product but as a cultural product trusted in the long term.
Benefits of Participation for Craft Businesses
Participation in TAKUMI NEXT has strategic significance for craft businesses beyond mere sales channel expansion. The reality is that challenges in overseas markets are difficult to realize independently due to information shortages and large practical burdens.
Below, we organize the specific benefits that craft businesses can obtain through the support provided by TAKUMI NEXT from three perspectives: access to international stages, establishment of practical standards, and medium to long-term brand value enhancement.
Access to International Stages Difficult for Individual Companies
For craft businesses to independently access overseas museums, design fairs, and international trade shows requires long time for network building and trust acquisition. Through TAKUMI NEXT, by leveraging JETRO’s international network, opportunities to directly dialogue with overseas buyers, galleries, and architects who are usually difficult to connect with are provided.
This is not just an introduction, but contact with parties who have prior interest in the context of “Japanese craft,” so the quality of business negotiations is high. By being able to stand on appropriate stages from the initial stage, businesses can learn reactions of international markets in practice while reducing trial and error costs.
Internationalization of Standards for Pricing, Specifications, and Contract Conditions
What many craft businesses face in international expansion is anxiety about pricing and contract conditions. In TAKUMI NEXT, support is provided for price design considering exchange rate fluctuations, condition organization considering transportation, insurance, and customs, and standardization of practical aspects such as return and damage handling.
Through this, it becomes possible to avoid intuitive price presentation and ad-hoc responses and establish a business system that can withstand international transactions. Additionally, since clarification of size and specifications and establishment of packaging standards are also promoted, reproducibility and reliability of transactions improve.
The establishment of such practical foundations will become important assets that can be applied to other overseas transactions once constructed.
Effects on Medium to Long-term Brand Value Enhancement
The experience of participating in TAKUMI NEXT contributes to medium to long-term brand value enhancement more than short-term sales. International exhibitions and evaluations from specialists, exhibition history, and transaction records become powerful credit information for businesses.
These function as elements that enhance evaluation not only overseas but also in the domestic market. Additionally, product development and review of expression conscious of overseas markets result in clarifying the axis of the brand and strengthening communication capability.
TAKUMI NEXT can be said to be a program that not only provides craft businesses with “support for going overseas” but also gives perspectives for redefining their own value and sustainably growing.
Important Points to Understand Before Participation
While TAKUMI NEXT brings great growth opportunities to craft businesses, there are also premises and risks that should be properly understood before participation. While the glamorous aspects of international expansion tend to attract attention, in reality, medium to long-term perspectives and continuous system development are essential.
Below, we organize three important points that must be understood when considering participation, presenting perspectives to prevent gaps in expectations and setbacks.
Premise That It’s Not a Short-term Sales Business
TAKUMI NEXT is not a business aimed at generating large sales immediately. In overseas markets, understanding the background of craft products and building trust takes time, so the first year often centers on recognition acquisition and market validation.
Even if reactions are obtained at exhibitions and business negotiations, it’s not uncommon for several months to over a year to pass before actual transaction begins. Therefore, participating businesses are required to have an attitude of nurturing brands in the medium to long term without seeking short-term results too much.
Understanding that TAKUMI NEXT is not a “place to create sales” but a “place to create a foundation for continuous sales” is important.
Requirements for Continuous Supply System and Quality Control
In overseas transactions, even for one-of-a-kind items, a certain quality standard and stable supply system are required. If evaluation is obtained through TAKUMI NEXT, possibilities arise for additional orders and series expansion requests.
At that time, if production pace, securing raw materials, and quality variation control are not in place, trust may be damaged. Additionally, strength design and review of packaging specifications considering damage risk during transportation are also important.
Organizing in advance how much reproducibility can be secured while maintaining artisan quality and uniqueness becomes the key to sustaining international expansion.
Intellectual Property, Contract, and Logistics Risks Associated with International Expansion
In international expansion, risks related to intellectual property rights, contract conditions, and logistics cannot be ignored. Imitation of designs, unauthorized use of photo data, and differences in interpretation of contract content are problems that can actually occur.
While certain support can be received in TAKUMI NEXT, the final responsibility lies with the businesses themselves. Therefore, it’s necessary to have a minimum understanding of copyright and design rights concepts, basic structure of contracts, and scope of transportation and insurance.
Going to overseas markets also means raising awareness of protecting works and products by one level. Understanding risks properly before participation will ultimately lead to maximizing the value of TAKUMI NEXT.
TAKUMI NEXT and the Future of Japanese Craft
TAKUMI NEXT can be said to be an initiative that redefines the nature of Japanese craft itself in an international context, not just measures to “sell” craft products overseas. As the focus shifts from an export model competing on volume and price to international communication conveying cultural value and philosophy, craft has begun to take on new roles.
Below, we organize the transformation of export concepts, relationships with young artisans and production region reorganization, and the significance TAKUMI NEXT fulfills in the medium to long term, envisioning the future image of Japanese craft.
Transformation from “Export” to “International Cultural Communication”
Conventional craft export tended to make the distribution of products in overseas markets itself the objective. However, what TAKUMI NEXT aims for is “international cultural communication” that conveys Japanese aesthetics and values through craft.
Overseas, craft products are received not as mere objects but as cultural expressions including the maker’s philosophy, regional climate, and accumulation of time. Therefore, how to present the background story becomes important, not just price and functional explanations.
By editing craft as cultural resources and presenting them in a form that can dialogue with contemporary international society, TAKUMI NEXT is shifting the evaluation axis of Japanese craft from “export value” to “cultural influence.”
Relationship with Young Artisans and Production Region Reorganization
TAKUMI NEXT has important significance for young artisans and new generation businesses as well. As the domestic market shrinks, for young people to continue craft as a profession, having an international perspective from an early stage is essential.
This program functions as a place for thinking training for young artisans to connect with overseas without excessively compromising their own expression. Additionally, through participation by production region units, the point that reorganization of division of labor structures and brand strategies is promoted cannot be overlooked.
The experience of reviewing conventional inward-looking production region structures and collaborating with external parties leads to renewal of the entire production region. TAKUMI NEXT can be said to be a mechanism that simultaneously supports next-generation bearers and reconstruction of production regions.
TAKUMI NEXT’s Medium to Long-term Role
When viewed in the medium to long term, TAKUMI NEXT’s role goes beyond supporting individual businesses’ overseas expansion. It is to cultivate a common language for what position Japanese craft takes in international society.
Accumulation of success and failure cases and visualization of evaluations from overseas will also influence future policy design and education. Additionally, a cycle is expected where businesses that have experienced TAKUMI NEXT become hubs domestically and internationally, returning knowledge to the next generation.
Not preserving craft as a heritage of the past, but continuing to update it as an ongoing culture. Building the foundation for this can be said to be the most important medium to long-term role that TAKUMI NEXT bears.
Summary
TAKUMI NEXT is a practical program for redefining Japanese craft not as mere export targets but as “cultural products” that dialogue with international society. In addition to specific measures such as product development, exhibition support, and matchmaking, evaluation criteria emphasizing contemporaneity, internationality, and editorial capability bring new perspectives to craft businesses and artisans.
On the other hand, the point that it’s not aimed at short-term sales and the necessity of responding to realistic issues such as supply systems, contracts, and intellectual property requires sufficient understanding and determination for participation. Nevertheless, the international experience, credit, and accumulation of brand value obtained through TAKUMI NEXT will become great assets for the future of Japanese craft.
This program plays a core role not just in preserving craft as a heritage of the past but in continuing to update it for the next generation, and can be said to be an indispensable initiative when considering the future direction of Japanese craft.
