Developing countries account for 70 percent of the world's population. With this in mind, a design exhibition entitled “Changing the World” is currently being held at the Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, with support from The Nippon Foundation's Canpan Center. The show hilights many “designs” that aim to solve the problems faced by people in developing countries. The exhibition, which displays unique products that are actually used in developing countries, is attracting many visitors.

Solar Cooker

It started on May 15. At the entrance of the gallery, there is a explanation about eight major problems faced by developing countries, namely safe water, food, stable energy, medical services, housing, transportation, education and information technology.

Design exhibition “Changing the World”

The shos continues with a veritable barage of devastating facts:
"Nine hundred million people in the world do not have safe drinking water,"
"One billion people are starving,"
"About 9.7 million children die each year before reaching their fifth birthday,"
"Eight hundred million people are forced to live their lives in the slum,"
"Seventy two million children cannot go to school,"
The difficulty facing our world, revealed by these facts, has had a strong impact on visitors.

Desk-type generator converted from a sewing machine

About fifty products are on display, such as rubber prostheses, a desk-type generator converted from a pedal sewing machine or a parabolic solar cooker.

Yasuko Torii, the director of the Japan Solar Cooking Association and Motoharu Takizawa, a representative of Kobo Amane, which produces and sells this device, both attended the gallery on May 18, and demonstrated how to use it.

Torii (right) and Takizawa explain the parabolic cooker to a visitor

Torii originally discovered the device in the U.S. and realized that firewood was now unnecessary. She has since been promoting it in developing countries and dessert areas for the past twenty years.

At Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, a workshop regarding design for developing countries was also held. Many designers and companies participated from both inside and outside Japan.

A similar exhibitoin is also currently underway at Tokyo's Axis gallery. This exhibition deals with projects that aim to improve developing countries’ markets.

Naotake Yamamoto, project coordinator

Naotake Yamamoto (26), project coordinator of the design exhibition, said "I had never organized this kind of exhibition but I thought ‘let’s take a chance and do something new.’ The public response has far exceeded my expectations, making me think that we should hold one every year, and not just in Tokyo."

Both exhibitions are open through June 13. Admission is free.