Nakagawa Yoshinori is a professor at Sophia University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies in Tokyo, Japan, and at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, Japan. He is working to develop the methodologies of ‘Future Design’ and illuminate the contributions Future Design can make in bringing about more sustainable societies.

The concept of “Future Design” was first promoted by Dr. Tatsuyoshi Saijo in 2012. Dr. Nakagawa collaborated with Dr. Saijo for a number of years. 

At its core, Future Design seeks to develop intergenerational empathy and perspective that may influence contemporary decision-making and goal-setting. It does this by encouraging a present individual to imagine themselves as a member from a designated future generation, with the ultimate goal of encouraging present individuals, organizations, and societies to make choices for which future generations will be appreciative. 

To delve deeper into the processes, applications, and challenges surrounding Future Design and why it’s interesting to begin with, Dr. Nakagawa agreed to let me interview him. 

My first question: “Why is Future Design an important tool for society and what does it seek to accomplish?”

Dr. Nakagawa: “In each society you have a dominant regime...The sustainability transition is a transition of the society, which means that the dominant regime is transformed. But this is always a political process with conflicts. And my understanding is that Future Design is an attempt to change this regime with less conflict. By taking the perspective of future generations, everyone will realize that there is a new angle from which to view their current society. So rather than putting pressure from outside, by acquiring the perspective of future generations, they can change from inside.”

In our conversation, Dr. Nakagawa defined a regime as a network of actors with a shared set of behaviors, or a set of rules, that are mostly implicit but sometimes explicit. “A regime,” says Dr. Nakagawa, “is a driver of the status quo.”

Not all regimes are bad and, to a certain extent, we need regimes. But the point is that these rule sets are hard to change and some are not conducive to the world we want to live in or to desirable futures: "Regimes sometimes cause sustainability problems and it takes a long time for such a problematic regime to be revised or replaced.”

Addressing today’s environmental crises, such as climate change, will require systemic changes to how many of us live and how businesses operate, among other things. Dr. Nakagawa suggests that Future Design is a tool that can help us imagine the future we’d want to live in by allowing us to step outside of our current regime and context.

“By traveling to the future you can get free from the implicit constraints of everyday life that characterize your behavioral patterns...It is possible to get free from your vested interest.”

Once that future is imagined, members of the present society can make decisions that move toward that desirable future society. 

I like to think of Future Design as an antidote to the tendency of present economic systems and institutions to discount the future. Future Design is a mechanism for factoring concerns about intergenerational justice into decision-making; it gives an imagined future generation a seat at the table. Future design is also a form of self-reflection. It compels the decision-maker to grapple with the initial tension between their interests and the imagined interests of a member of a future generation whose shoes they step into. Through this process, a Future Design participant may realize that present and future interests are not so far apart or, at least, that the perspectives of a future person and their own are now much closer together upon reflection.

I wanted to know what might motivate an individual, an organization, or a government to engage in Future Design if they do not innately feel a sense of concern or connectedness for and to future generations. I asked: “How do you encourage intergenerational empathy? How do you get others to care about Future Design?”

Dr. Nakagawa: “My view might be too optimistic but intellectual joy may be sufficient. If you acquire a new perspective in the process of Future Design, then you can have a broader overall perspective. This is a source of intellectual joy. You are living daily life as a contemporary person and, in the same life, you can sometimes switch into the perspective of a future generation. Then, you find that the thing in front of you can be seen from a different angle. Don’t you think it is so interesting?”

“I think it’s really interesting,” I replied, “I imagine it would feel good to own the impact we all have on future generations. We have this impact; we just don’t always talk about it. We’re all leaving behind a legacy with our behaviors, with our policies, or when we invest in something expensive and leave the bill for someone else down the line. So Future Design is an honest way to think about the future ‘other’ and our relationship to them.”

“What is something you’ve learned while working on Future Design that feels very important or surprising?” I asked.

Dr. Nakagawa: “One thing that has surprised me is the creativity that ordinary people possess. In the Future Design workshop setting, participants are freed from daily constraints and come up with new ideas...Each individual has their own problem perceptions, that is a sense that something is wrong in the current situation...In their daily life, they have very few opportunities to think about such things. In the future design setting, they feel it is allowed to express radical views and some of these views are really interesting...Through the exchange of ideas, the original idea becomes much better. And through this process of collaboration among imaginary future people, they arrive at a totally new angle from which to view contemporary society.”

Dr. Nakagawa raises an interesting point that by inviting individuals to step outside their current socio-political context and dream of the future they’d like to live in, they are being provided with a sandbox in which they can try out new ideas, and imagine new ways of living and being in society, with no strings attached. Particularly in a context where public political discussion and/or criticism is not prevalent, Future Design workshops provide participants a space to engage in critical dialogues surrounding organizational and societal trajectories and goals. And an important part of all of this is contestation and collaboration: it is through the process of exchanging and building upon ideas –– including doing so through constructive conflict that encourages each imaginary future person to share, listen, and re-evaluate their viewpoint –– that the best visions about the future and perspectives on the present emerge. 

So, is Future Design catching on in Japan? 

Dr. Nakagawa: “In the last three or four years, the concept of Future Design has prevailed. Now the Ministry of Finance in Japan is using it. Last year they established a Future Design group or division.... Right now it is very minor but they are going to launch a portal site for Future Design...There is a big movement going on. Many other private companies, local governments, and people are taking an interest in Future Design...All of them are involved in a very rigid regime where presentism is dominant. In spite of this, and at the same time, they feel that something is wrong in this current state. Such people are trying to somehow incorporate the concept of Future Design in their own context.” 

Future Design is a very promising tool for decision-makers and, right now, we’re at the very early stages of adoption. For many, it remains an interesting exercise. “But I would like to show that it is more than a workshop technique,” says Dr. Nakagawa, “We can do much more...For the audience of researchers in sustainability transitions, I will show them that Future Design is a really powerful intervening measure.” 

Future Design is a tool for intervening in and disrupting contemporary behaviors and perspectives that uphold unsustainable ways of life, thereby influencing more sustainable-minded decision-making without the use of direct negative pressures or economic incentives. On my end, I can’t help but wonder what international climate negotiations would look like if they were negotiated by imagined future peoples from each participating country. I wanted to know Dr. Nakagawa’s vision for the future of Future Design: “Assuming anything is possible, what would be your hopes and dreams for how Future Design is used in Japan?”

Dr. Nakagawa: “Maybe in Parliament or local assemblies. We have many different political parties conflicting with each other. I do not say that Future Design can resolve such conflicts, but let’s conflict with each other from the future generations’ perspective. Don’t you think that is a wonderful conflict?”

Anna Lenaker is an in-house science writer and storyteller at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN). She is a visiting researcher through June 2025 and Luce Scholar, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. At RIHN, she is committed to translating research findings and their importance to different audiences; sharing methodologies, ideas, and insights from RIHN to the world; and capturing the stories around environmental issues and research. Anna recently completed her Master of Environmental Management at the Yale School of the Environment, specializing in climate change science and solutions, as well as water resource science and management. Before this, she received her Master of Public Affairs and Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Brown University.