A one-handed cosmetics jar designed with stroke survivors, a pasta pouch that never needs a pot, and a detergent bottle that does more with 23% less plastic: Japan's top packaging awards reward thinking that starts with the person holding the pack.
International delegates at Tokyo Pack 2026 got a guided look at the best of Japanese packaging this year. Yasuhiko Ide of Japan Packaging Institute (JPI) expertly led the tour through the displays of 2026 Japan Packaging Contest and Kinoshita Prize winners, explaining the thinking behind each pack.
What stood out was the care taken over design of packaging for everyday products. Sugar, pasta, laundry detergent and face cream are commodity purchases, and the winning packs make them easier to use, less wasteful, or both.
The displays brought together Japan's two most prestigious packaging honours, both run by the Japan Packaging Institute (JPI).
The Japan Packaging Contest, now in its 48th year, selects the year's best consumer and transport packaging. Every winner receives a Good Packaging award and may carry the GP mark. The top tier, the Japan Star awards, includes the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award and the President of JPI Award. Japan Star winners are eligible for the WorldStar and AsiaStar competitions. Entries are judged on 11 criteria, from appropriate packaging and environmental compatibility to accessible design and visual effect.
The Kinoshita Prize marked its 50th presentation this year. It commemorates the late Matasaburo Kinoshita, JPI's second chairman, and recognises outstanding results in three categories: R&D, Improvement and Rationalisation, and Creation of New Area of Development. Packaging technologies judged exemplary are honoured alongside the category winners.
This year's Japan Star winners show where Japanese packaging is heading. Paper and single-material solutions featured strongly. The METI Minister's Award went to Japan Pulp & Paper's Kami Eco Craft+α, a durable, water-resistant paper material designed for repeated use. Another Japan Star went to eco-Pon, a capsule-toy container moulded from about 60% pulp and 40% starch, from K2 STATION, Rengo and DAIHO Industrial. TOPPAN's all-polypropylene retort pouch replaces the usual aluminium-foil laminate to make retort food packaging recyclable.
Closed-loop recycling is moving into harder materials too. The Nisshin OilliO Group and Kewpie were recognised for Japan's first bottle-to-bottle recycling of oil-contaminated PET into new edible oil and dressing bottles.
Transport packaging sits alongside consumer packs, which sets the contest apart. Winners included a biopharmaceutical shipping container that cuts CO2 emissions by 42% and transport costs by 23%, and engine hood packaging for Mitsubishi Motors that uses 44% less material and takes 75% less time to assemble.
Accessibility ran through the list as well. KOSÉ's one-handed jar, covered below, won a Japan Star, as did Guide for QR, a paper tactile guide that helps blind and low-vision shoppers find the QR code on a pack.
Here are a few designs that stood out to PKN:
Kao Emal: ribs that do the heavy lifting
President of JPI Award (Japan Star) and Kinoshita Prize, R&D category
Kao's bottle for Emal, its detergent for delicate fabrics, is one of two packs on the tour to win in both programmes. The Kinoshita Prize citation describes it as a resin-reduced sustainable bottle for laundry detergent that combines strength with visual appeal.
The key is what Kao calls a Smart Rib design. Long vertical ribs run the height of the bottle, combined with shorter horizontal ribs. Together they deliver compressive strength, vacuum resistance and grip strength, which Kao designed for across the product's whole lifecycle.
The clever part is that the ribs barely show once the shrink sleeve goes on. Ribs usually distort a sleeved bottle's graphics. Here the front design and back-panel information stay clean, so the bottle keeps its shelf appeal and familiar ease of use.
The result is about 23% less resin. Combined with the use of recycled materials, that delivers roughly a 19% reduction in lifecycle CO2 emissions.
Emal sleeved bottle beside the bare Smart Rib bottle]
KOSÉ INFINITY "The Repair": luxury you can open with one hand
President of The Accessible Design Foundation of Japan Award – Universal Design (Japan Star) and Kinoshita Prize, Improvement and Rationalisation category
KOSÉ set out to combine the refined look of a luxury skincare brand with universal design. To turn customer feedback into practical improvements, the company interviewed people living with the after-effects of a stroke, identified the pain points, and redesigned the range.
The jar now opens and closes with one hand. A non-slip elastomer resin on the base keeps it steady on a bench, so the curved cap lifts straight off. The cap is shaped for a comfortable grip and designed not to roll away once removed.
The outer carton folds fully open, so the jar can be taken out from the side instead of lifted from the top. KOSÉ also optimised the font size and colour on the packaging for readability.
What impressed me most was how invisible it all is. In KOSÉ's words, the universal design elements are incorporated "without drawing undue attention to them", while still taking environmental impact into account. Nothing about the pack says "assistive". It simply works better for everyone.
Nisshin Seifun Welna and TOPPAN: fresh pasta, no pot required
Kinoshita Prize, Packaging Technology Award
This pouch from Nisshin Seifun Welna and TOPPAN was one of three packs honoured as exemplary packaging technologies at this year's Kinoshita Prize. The citation recognises the development and market creation of next-generation fresh pasta packaging that achieves both long-term ambient storage and easy microwave cooking.
The product is Ma·Ma Mochi Mochi Nama Pasta, a single-serve 190g pouch of pre-boiled fresh pasta, sold in spaghetti and fettuccine. It sits on the shelf at room temperature. To cook, you stand the pouch upright in the microwave and heat it for 2 minutes at 600W, with a built-in steam vent releasing pressure.
TOPPAN's GL BARRIER, a transparent vapour-deposited barrier film, makes it possible. It is used in what the partners call a Steam-Cook Standing Pouch, which delivers authentic, chewy texture from microwave heating alone.
The partners say the pack improves storability, reduces environmental impact, and cuts housework by doing away with the pasta pot and the washing up that follows.
Lapoppo Farm: drink and snack in one hand
Good Packaging – Packaging Idea Award
Beyond the headline awards, two Good Packaging winners in the display stood out for the simplicity of their ideas. The first was created for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai by Shirohato Foods Industry, which runs the Lapoppo Farm sweet potato brand, and The Pack Corporation.
The Expo One-Hand Drink & Food Package was designed so visitors could carry a drink and a snack in one hand while walking through the crowded Expo site. It has three parts: a drink cup, a sleeve and a food tray. Staff set the sleeve on the cup and simply rest the tray on top.
The tray is a square with one side cut away, making it a pentagon, and the paper straw slots through the gap. It can also hold a dip-sauce cup, and it doubles as a stand-alone tray for food-only orders.
Everything is paper, so the whole pack goes in the bin without sorting. The companies say this suits the Expo theme of a sustainable future society.
[PHOTO: Lapoppo Farm cup, sleeve and tray]
Wellneo Sugar: sugar that pours like a sauce
Good Packaging – Food Packaging Division Award
The second is Sasatto! Sugar, a 230g pack from TOPPAN Group and Wellneo Sugar under its Cup brand. It sets out to remove the fuss of bagged sugar: decanting it into a canister and measuring with a spoon.
The sugar comes in a spouted Air Hold Pouch, which stands up on its own thanks to air sealed into its structure. A grip strip on the side tells you where to hold, and the sugar pours one-handed straight over toast, into a mixing bowl or into a drink.
The contents were reformulated to suit the pack. Fine granules dissolve easily and resist clumping, which opens up new uses such as sweetening cold drinks and yoghurt. The pouch body uses a transparent barrier film to reduce environmental impact.
The other 2026 Kinoshita Prize winners follow the same themes. CKD won for its Eco-Scrap PTP blister packaging technology, designed to cut plastic waste. Toyo Seikan and UACJ won for EcoEnd, a beverage can end with a high share of recycled aluminium. Oji Holdings won for Renewa, a material recycling model built on partnerships between companies. Rengo, and N Beverage with Dai Nippon Printing, joined the pasta pouch as Packaging Technology Award winners.
One Good Packaging winner has a direct Australian connection. Converters RENGO and OJI, worked with Roland to design transit packaging to replace the expanded polystyrene cushioning in an electronic piano set with an all-corrugated design, prompted, the information guide stated, by Australia's restrictions on EPS (In Westerns Australia there is a ban on EPS, some other states are phasing it out). The 40kg-plus set needed both rigidity and shock absorption, and the single-material pack can now be recycled.
The winning packs make a case that sustainability and usability can be designed together, solving practical problems for consumers.
