Interior Lifestyle Tokyo is opening its doors from 5 – 7 (Wed – Fri) June at Tokyo Big Sight’s West halls 1, 2, 3, 4, and the Atrium. The fair welcomes a record-high 705 exhibitors (Domestic: 473 Overseas: 232) from 32 countries/regions, who will showcase a wide range of high-end interior design products. Interior Lifestyle Tokyo is based on two of Messe Frankfurt’s most prominent annual fairs in Frankfurt, Germany; “Ambiente”, the world’s largest consumer goods fair held every February, and “Heimtextil”, the world’s leading international trade fair for home and contract textiles held every January. With its global network, the show has positioned itself as Asia’s number one consumer goods event. It has attracted interior design industry experts from around the world, and this year, the number of overseas exhibitors has increased by approximately 25%. 

At the 23rd edition, “Creative Direction", a group of four leading figures in the interior design industry have combined their expertise for an attractive show again. They contributed to the nine zones in stylishly designed halls titled; HOME, KITCHEN LIFE, ACCENT, EVERYDAY, GLOBAL, MOVEMENT, NEXT, TALENTS and the Atrium Highlight ‘JAPAN STYLE’. Complementing the line-up of various products, there will be many highlight events that enable visitors to grasp the latest trends.
 
The 23rd edition’s special highlights

Atrium Highlight: ‘JAPAN STYLE’
The Atrium Highlight has been presenting themed exhibits that offer inspiration for new lifestyle ideas every year. The special exhibition at the Atrium this year is ‘JAPAN STYLE’. ‘JAPAN STYLE’ is a zone which showcases Japanese products that reflect the fusion of a modern lifestyle and traditional high level skills and techniques that have cultivated supreme quality items in the country. ‘JAPAN STYLE’ was originally set at “Ambiente”, and recently has developed at this show and at its sister fair “IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living”, held every autumn at Tokyo Big Sight.

‘JAPAN STYLE’ has been brought to the Atrium this year with the goal of promoting Japan, especially with the country being selected as the ‘partner country’ at “Ambiente 2014”[3]. ‘JAPAN STLYE’ aims to strengthen its impact and reinforce the promotion of Japanese culture at this show, as well as at “IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living” in 2013, and last but not least, “Ambiente 2014”. The theme for ‘JAPAN STYLE’ at Interior Lifestyle Tokyo is ‘Super Ennichi’.

‘Ennichi’ is a Japanese festival where a range of stalls (food, games, souvenirs, etc.) are lined often at shrines and temples, and has been originally conducted to celebrate a day believed to have a special relation with a particular Japanese deity that varies among regions. The fairground will be filled with a happy and cheerful atmosphere through beautiful ‘Ennichi’-style displays, directed by art director and renowned interior designer Yukio Hashimoto, from hashimoto yukio design studio inc. Together with the concept directors Ryutaro Yoshida from Prestige Japan Inc. and Masanori Watanabe from Cross-Edge Inc., who have been supervising ‘JAPAN STYLE’ since its start, the three directors have created a must-see area with workshops and demonstrations so visitors can collectively experience current Japanese culture. There will also be displays where one can see and imagine the process in product manufacturing.

Lifestyle salon 2013
‘Lifestyle salon’ is a special seminar that presents the latest trends and business ideas through timely themes. Experts will be talking about the latest developments under the theme of ‘Trends’, and ‘Business’. This year, buyers from Merci are joining the fair and will hold a seminar at ‘Lifestyle salon 2013’. Another focus will be ‘Ambiente trends 2013’, where the latest consumer goods’ trends will be presented by stilbuero bora.herke.palmisano from Frankfurt, a trend setter group at “Ambiente” and “Heimtextil”.

Programme Schedule
Language: English/Japanese

● Talk show by Merci buyers
Thu 6 June 15:30-16:30
Speaker: Mr Daniel Rozensztroch and Mr Jean Luc Colonna D'Istria
Moderator: Ms Miki Homma
 
● Ambiente trends 2013
Wed 5 June 15:30-16:30 / Thu 6 June 11:30-12:30
Fri 7   June 15:30-16:30 
Speaker: Mrs Annetta Palmisiano
                              
NEXT and TALENTS
‘NEXT’ and ‘TALENTS’ are zones for young talents to find business opportunities through encounters with the high quality visitors the show brings. ‘NEXT’ provides young organisations the opportunity to discover new collaborative projects and initiate business experiences. ‘TALENTS’ is a business platform to showcase prototypes that ultimately can become commercialised products. Exhibitors at ‘TALENTS’ have a chance to be chosen for the ‘Young Designer’ award, and will be entitled to exhibit at the coming edition of “Ambiente”. This year the award recipient will be chosen by the Vice President Ambiente/Tendence Nicolette Naumann. This award has enabled many young talents to flourish overseas in the past.

The “Young Designer” award is one of the “Interior Lifestyle Awards” that is given to outstanding exhibitors. This year the following five awards will be granted: “Space Design”, “Design Business”, “Media”, “Best Buy” and “Young Designer”. The award winners will be announced at a reception party held on the evening of June 6.

For more information on Interior Lifestyle Tokyo please visit: http://www.interior-lifestyle.com/en/

For more information on the sister fair IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living held on 6 – 8 (Wed-Fri) November 2013 please visit:
http://www.ifft-interiorlifestyleliving.com/en/

For worldwide Ambiente brand fairs please visit:
http://ambiente.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/aussteller/weltweit.html

Further reading on the Heimtextil brand events is available on www.texpertise-network.com.