'Japanese design has this ability to combine precision with a poetic dimension. Minimalism is not a stylistic choice, but a way of thinking – removing what is not necessary to give more clarity and strength to what remains.' Maria Porro, president of Salone del Mobile, was speaking to Wallpaper* about the ever-growing influence of Japanese design in Milan – and true to her words, the city was awash with high-quality projects from Japan. Design innovations spanned the spectrum: from architectural rugs, quiet paper innovations and crafted chairs designed to “not to be noticed” to textiles created by sound.
Japan's creative output has perhaps never been more relevant, according to Porro: “Japanese design offers clarity at a moment of global complexity. It demonstrates a strong ability to translate cultural values into contemporary forms, while maintaining continuity. For me, its relevance lies not only in its aesthetics, but in a way of thinking that is rigorous, responsible and increasingly necessary in shaping the future of design.”
Here, Wallpaper* highlights a fraction of the many Japanese projects that left an imprint on Milan’s designscape this year.
Best Japanese design at Milan Design Week 2026
‘bit by bit’ by Haruka Misawa at ADI Design Museum (until June 7)
Paper – with thread, wood, wire, nail, leaves, stones, pencils, glass beads, acrylic pipes. These ingredients shape the quiet beauty of ‘bit by bit’, Haruka Misawa’s first solo exhibition in Italy. Spanning long rows of steel displays are time-slowing creations – cut, pasted, stitched, layered and minutely crafted. One paper work has tiny squares containing the miniature intricacy of staircases; another has a small missing segment – the cut out part transformed into a cloud-like puff of light paper shreds. A highlight? Tiny paper shapes that dance, float and spin – the otherworldly result of a meticulously researched combination of washi paper containing metal powder with a hidden magnetic system. 'Paper is thin and flat yet it has many possibilities,' Misawa, a respected designer who helms Misawa Design Institute at Nippon Design Centre, tells Wallpaper*.
Koyori at Salone del Mobile
Hinode chair and coffee table by Vincent Van Duysen
Sunrise – or hinode in Japanese. This is the inspiration behind Vincent Van Duysen’s debut collection for Koyori, a Japanese furniture brand rooted in quality craftsmanship and contemporary design, launching at Salone for the first time. Showing Wallpaper* his warm T-shaped chair and tables with softly twisted wood edges, Van Duysen explains: 'Hinode is about new beginnings and a homage to nature. Wood is a material I carry in my heart. Natural. Timeless. Real textures. The beauty of imperfection. In terms of executing details, the craftsmanship at Koyori is on another level.'
Ichirin chair by Ronan Bouroullec
Ronan Bouroullec also unveiled the pared-back beauty of his Ichirin chair, its structural purity and lightly sensual edges sharpened by a clean-lined wood grain. 'I wanted this to be a chair you don’t notice,' he explains. 'You just feel good in the room. Like a teabag in a glass of water. It’s almost nothing. Just function.' Added to the mix were GamFratesi’s latest Koyori pieces, including their playful Kinomi side tables – acorn-like forms balancing lightly on tripod legs. 'Not everything needs to be big,' says Enrico Fratesi. 'We want to create a memory and an emotional connection.'
Oke by Junichiro Yokota Studio at SaloneSatellite
Oke – or wood bucket. This everyday Japanese object is the inspiration behind the Oke chair, a curved sweep of vertical wood components, rising in clean lines around two minimalist panels – crafted from leftover wood. The chair was created by Junichiro Yokata, a Tokyo product designer, who explains: 'the feeling of being enveloped in the surrounding wood teaches us the inherent richness of materials.' Also exhibited was his atmospheric Toi table lamp (a pendant version launched last year), a softly-curved glow of organic washi paper; plus Extra, a contemporary basked shaped by two interlocking circles – all explorations of the 'ordinary' in everyday life, anchored in a pared back beauty and minimalist simplicity.
Unseen Objects / Overflow by We+ and Heiwa Gokin at Galleria Rubin
Burr – the surplus metal removed during traditional casting processes – shines in the spotlight in Unseen Objects / Overflow, a new furniture collection brought to life in an innovative collaboration between Tokyo design unit We+ and century-old foundry Heiwa Gokin based in copper casting hub Takaoka. A contemporary excavation of traditional craftsmanship, the project taps into the 'imperfect' formations that trace material surfaces during large-scale metal castings in sand moulds – delicate fringes of metal known as burrs which are typically removed in the making process. Leaving these material imperfections in place, cast panels were layered into a puzzle of aluminium panels to create unique shelving and low-level tables – creating structural furniture imbued with an elemental, primitive and organic essence. The furniture launch follows last year’s launch of small objects such as vases, using the same technique.
NII at Salone del Mobile
Bitmap by Todd Bracher
Playful, contemporary, flexible: NII is a high-end new office furniture brand created by Itoko, a long respected Japanese office solutions company dating back 125 years. Its launch collection included the clean Lego-like modularity of sofa system Bitmap by Todd Bracher; light filtering shingle-like wood screens Pigna wrapped around seating, by AMDL Circle; the transparent river-like flow of glass table Connexa, on a structural base with hints of shrine gates by Rodolfo Agrella; the organic curves and ergonomic modularity of Parlamento sofa system by Jun Aizaki of Créme; and the super-smooth glide of Allround stools with clean modern silhouettes in glossy shades (red, blue, beige).
'It’s about ingenious design,' says Hirotaka Tako, creative director at NII, his red socks matching the red stool he is gliding on at Salone while chatting to Wallpaper*. 'The boundaries between office design and hospitality design are increasingly blurred. There is flexibility and freedom in these spaces – and furniture needs to adapt to this.'
Faces by Kengo Kuma for Jaipur Rugs at Crespi Bonsai Museum
Architecture and rugs don’t often tangibly overlap – yet Faces is a new Jaipur Rugs collection designed by Kengo Kuma, which translate facades from his building designs into woven rug creations. Handwoven surfaces are imbued with the Japanese architect’s spatial language, expressed through light, shadow and rhythm motifs. Launched with an atmospheric installation at Crespi Bonsai Museum on the outskirts of Milan, the new rugs were scattered among light-filled greenhouses and gardens.
Five designs include Sukima – the space between forms, allowing light and air to flow – inspired by the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo, with subtly shifting linear planes; while small square motifs imprint the surface of Chirashi, a reimagining of the stone structure of the Museum of Kanayama Castle Ruin and the Kanamaya Community Centre. Jaipur Rugs MD Yogesh Chaudhary tells Wallpaper*: 'these are all inspired by actual buildings. But it’s not just the facades – it’s how it interacts with light and air. It’s a way of seeing.'
Wave Weave by Hosoo with Carsten Nicolai at Hosoo Milan
A sublime mesh of textiles, music and technology shapes Wave Weave, by centuries-old (and ever-innovating) Kyoto textile company Hosoo, with German sound artist Carsten Nicolai. Unravelling the auditory poetry of textiles, the exhibition – unfolding in the intimate elegance of Hosoo’s Milan flagship – centres on a 22-minute film of Hosoo’s workshop. Nicolai’s soundtrack was then translated into a textile design, with sound visualised as a sonogram – resulting in an exquisitely otherworldly silk obi (kimono belt), with cloud-like woven abstractions (a minimalist installation light moves just above the textile, matching the exact musical notes being played to the material).
Nearby is another digital expression reborn in material form: new textile collection Raster Gradient. Monochrome silk panels are peppered with a gradated spectrum of tiny white dots emerging from deep black oblivion before dissolving into pure light – the result of years of experimentation (each handmade panel contains 9,000 warp threads alternating black and white). 'Technology and textiles are very close,' explains Masataka Hosoo.
Karimoku Case at Salone; Karimoku Research at Capsule Plaza
Intimate, minimal and quiet, it had all the ingredients of a hotel – from the wooden front desk and calm lobby to a spacious suite. Karimoku Case created 'A Thoughtful Stay' at Salone del Mobile, tapping into its holistic philosophy of designing objects and spaces in harmony, as envisioned by Norm Architect and Keiji Ashizawa Design. Layers of wood harmonised with natural materials (paper, stone, textiles), alongside signature triangular lanterns and the smooth crafted lines of Karimoku Case furniture. 'The goal was to showcase the brand in a holistic boutique hotel environment,' says Frederik Werner of Norm Architects.
Across town at Capsule Plaza, a different rhythm shaped 'Research Published as Furniture'. Shoji paper screens and bright colour pops were the backdrop for the Milan debut of four new brands developed through Karimoku’s research projects. Among them was a structural glass table from CMPT by Lichen, plus the soft olive leather textures of ZE Sofa from Karimoku Re:issue by Lichen, reimagining an iconic 1982 design; alongside stacked formations of modular wooden containers from Stakko, a brand created with Postalco. A second space was filled the modern playfulness of sculptural shapes in jewel tones by wagetsu わ月, a brand made with LA-based Waka Waka – including angular low tables with high-shine surfaces, made using a technique typically used for pianos.
Meeting Horizons at Time & Style Milan
A light tangle of wood curves floating like a cloud. Solid wood shelving with softly tapered edges and traditional joinery. Cantilevered chairs, hovering above stone floors. Time & Style unveiled the Meeting Horizons collection in the near temple-like serenity of their Milan flagship, with a thoughtful layering of Japanese and Western influences. There is Yoshino Breath Armchair, its clean-lined cubic cedar form assembled without metal fittings; Soe, by Wohl Hütte, its layered planes and vertical bamboo element riffing on traditional Japanese alcoves; a lightly hovering mobile of steam-bent wood by Drill Design and a natural new textile of cotton and wool by Noriko Tsuiki. An exhibition in the paper-wrapped vaulted basement also showcased the minimal white curves of stone artist Ayako Ueda on wood blocks with traditional Japanese joinery.
Future Memories by Roberto Sironi with Sansui at Rossana Orlandi
Picture a circle of light-reflecting polished steel, its water-like surface floating above an angled base of sturdy pine beams darkened with time – fragments of wooden carpentry from an abandoned house in rural Japan. This mix of new and old, lightness and strength shapes Future Memories, a contemporary installation of sculptural objects which gives a fresh lease of life to salvaged beams from Japan’s empty kominka farmhouses, by Italian designer Roberto Sironi in collaboration with Sansui, a century-old Japanese carpentry company. Centre stage in a vaulted stone space are fragments of beams reconfigured to create sculptural objects, chairs and tables. Written into the material are traces of time, with nail-free joinery and hints of human touch on hand-carved surfaces. 'Each beam has its own story,' Sironi tells Wallpaper*. 'There’s no painting, no vanishing, just the patina of time.'
Noritake Design Collection at Alcova
Curved, flowing, fragmented, in earthy tones – just like the earth. This idea shapes the abstract beauty of Landscape, a debut ceramics collection by Michele De Lucchi of AMDL Circle for Noritake, a Japanese company dating back to 1904.
Studio Toogood also launched Kiln: a harmony of sculptural curves and lines, cleanly shaped in monochrome black and white. 'I wanted to bring some strong geometry to the Noritake table, taking influence from its incredible relics of manufacturing,' says Faye Toogood. The new Imperial Peacock Collection was also displayed, a collaboration with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, inspired by stone carvings at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. These new additions to Noritake Design Collection were showcased at Baggio Military Hospital – where talented master artisan Masami Okada from Japan, sat surrounded by paints and brushes, showcasing his quiet mastery of ceramic painting, throughout the week.
Lesson in Relations by Takt Project at Chiesa di San Bernardino alle Monache
The atmosphere tilted at the threshold of Chiesa di San Barnardino alle Monarche: inside the empty church was Lessons in Relations by Takt Project, a conceptual exploration of nature, humans and materiality. Scattered on the ground were branches collected from forests in Nagano, completed with 3D-printed white elements – looping, knotted, tied, threaded, wrapped around the wood. Each 'branch' was placed in a delicate white circle of instructional text on the floor, in Italian and English – such as 'find a circular fragment within the branch'. The result was poetic record of a human-forest relationship – as the Tokyo studio explains: 'This project takes the branch as a motif to explore a contemporary way of relating to materials.'
Sur+Plus by Atma at Alcova
Sitting in a quiet concrete space in the basement of Villa Pestarini was a sculptural scattering of unique chairs created from fragments of material offcuts (stones, marbles, wood, tiles, carpet). Created by Tokyo studio Atma, the Sur+Plus chairs are made from a simple tilt of two panels, attached by a clean-lined metal fixture. Minimally visible design intervention amplifies the beauty of the pastel-toned textures, disparate fragments and organic material edges that shape the chairs, each unwaveringly unique. 'What emerges is a form of co-existence – elements connected while their differences remain,' explain the studio founders.
Hideo at Salone del Mobile
Behind a white curtain in pavilion 10 at Salone del Mobile was a small pocket of Japanese bath serenity. It was the Salone debut of Hideo, a company created by the so-called Japanese master of modern bathtub design Hideo Shimizu. The Japanese designer, based in Italy, has spent decades reimagining traditional Japanese design and craftsmanship into contemporary form. On display in the Time & Style-designed space were two white bathtubs designed in Japan and made in Italy, using a high-tech material rooted in a plant-derived bioresin – including keyhole-shaped Chiave and the curves of Infinity.