Five Years of Hiroshima Kansei Innovation Council: Local Government Promotion Activities of Kansei Engineering and Ergonomics to Local Industries

Hiroshima prefectural government has started a council five years ago, to promoting and educating Kansei engineering and Ergonomic methodologies to product development at Hiroshima local area. In 2018, registered member companies count 188. This unique local-government based endeavors are insightful for promoting both Kansei engineering and Ergonomics to local industries. Its activities have four aspects. 1. Kansei innovation lecture series. Open lectures and hands-on seminars are regularly held in each year. 2. Supporting monitor panel and evaluation experiments. This support program helps exchange participants between member companies for product evaluations. 3. Matching with experts. The council makes a match with experts who have enough expertise to solve the problem. 4. Cooperating with organizations. Since this council is run by Hiroshima prefectural office, it is non-profit. Thus, it easily relates to universities, prefecture-run research laboratories, and an extensive area project of Japan government. Activities and newly designed products are explained.