Fashion Business Society Appoints Hideki Hirai as New Chairman

The Fashion Business Society (Headquarters: Tokyo / hereinafter, FBS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Hideki Hirai as its 4th chairman, effective from fiscal year 2026.

Since its establishment in 1993, the FBS has continued its activities as an academic organization that transcends research and practice, viewing fashion as a domain spanning "industry," "culture," and "life." With this appointment, we will re-evaluate the role the society has played and evolve its function as a "place" where diverse knowledge and practices intersect, moving to the next stage.

■ Background of the New Chairman's Appointment

The environment surrounding the fashion business has recently reached a major turning point. Changes in industrial structure, the advancement of digitalization and AI, transformations in values and social demands, and an era where sustainability is a prerequisite — these changes are questioning the very meaning and role of fashion itself.

Even within the FBS, challenges such as:

* Deeper connection between academia and practice
* Promotion of exchanges across generations and fields
* Social dissemination of knowledge accumulated within the society

These challenges have become apparent, and the society is transitioning from a mature stage to the next growth stage.

■ Basic Policy upon Assuming Chairmanship

New Chairman Hideki Hirai positions the role of the chairman not as someone who "unilaterally decides the direction of the society," but as the management of a "place" that fosters an environment where diverse knowledge and positions continue to intersect.

Moving forward, the Fashion Business Society will redefine and promote itself as an "academic platform," centered on:

* Strengthening mechanisms where research outcomes circulate into practice, and practical knowledge into research
* Developing an academic environment that encourages young researchers and practitioners to challenge themselves
* Accumulation and visualization of knowledge through research groups, journals, and conferences
* Developing activities conscious of connections with diverse fields, industry, and society

■ New Chairman's Comment

The Fashion Business Society is a place for presenting research results, and at the same time, a society with the power to be a "place" where people from diverse backgrounds such as researchers, practitioners, and students meet, discuss, and learn together. As chairman, I intend to foster the society not as a finished product, but as a place that grows and is continuously updated by each individual involved. Together with our members, we will advance to the next stage towards a future of fashion where knowledge and practice intersect.

■ New Chairman Profile

Hideki Hirai

After serving as brand manager, product development, business format development, and collaboration development at the World Group, he became a professor at the International Fashion Professional University in 2019. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and an MBA. His specialties include marketing theory, product development theory, and trend theory. His books include "Inter-Group and Inter-Regional Competition in Textiles and Apparel and the Regeneration of Production Area Competitiveness" (2022, co-authored) and "[New Edition] Marketing for Beginners: Modern Marketing Strategies and Society" (2026, co-authored).

He joined the Fashion Business Society in 2015. He has served as a board member, chairman of various committees and subcommittees, and chairman of the national convention executive committee, comprehensively overseeing research, planning, and operations. His research themes include the connection between theory and practice in fashion business, education and human resource development, digital technology and changes in industrial structure, and post-design thinking.

■ About the Fashion Business Society

The Fashion Business Society is an academic organization that comprehensively researches and practices fashion, spanning diverse fields such as life, creation, technology, economy, and education. It conducts open academic activities through research presentation conferences, research groups, publication of journals, and symposiums, and is an academic research organization affiliated with the Science Council of Japan.

https://www.fbsociety.com/about_us/vision.html

■ About Research Groups

Currently, research groups cover diverse themes surrounding fashion, including AI, digital technology, fashion management/strategy, design, industrial history, sustainability, society/culture, legal systems, universal fashion, and luxury business. They hold regular study meetings, workshops, field surveys, lectures by external experts, and research presentations at society conferences.

Research groups allow participation across affiliations and positions (researchers, practitioners, students) and aim to create new research themes and return knowledge to society through continuous dialogue and collaboration with peers who share interests. Additionally, applications for new research groups are accepted at any time, enabling flexible academic activities that respond to changing times.

Moving forward, the Fashion Business Society will position research groups as the "forefront units where knowledge and practice intersect" and will strive to enhance the value of the entire society as an academic platform by further strengthening the visibility and social dissemination of their activities. https://www.fbsociety.com/studygroup/

■ Member Recruitment
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