Tokuyama National College of Technology and MOU Signed, Educational Program for Service Design Provided

4D Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Ryo Taguchi, hereinafter "4D") has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for collaboration with the National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College (hereinafter "Tokuyama NIT") under the National Institute of Technology Organization. In addition, an educational program for service design was conducted at Tokuyama NIT for three days from June 5 (Fri) to June 7 (Sun), 2026.

Background of the Workshop Implementation

4D has been developing service design educational programs, mainly in Southeast Asia, and has accumulated collaboration achievements with multiple universities in Thailand. In February 2026, 4D provided a workshop for joint Japanese-Thai training at "KOSEN-KMITL," a national college of technology in Thailand, with four students from Tokuyama NIT participating (Reference: https://www.4digit.com/topics/260415).

Teachers from Tokuyama NIT, who observed the students' engagement in this workshop, requested "to implement a similar workshop at our college as an opportunity to learn design thinking in English." This request became the catalyst for the implementation of the workshop at Tokuyama NIT and the signing of the MOU. Students who completed the training in Thailand participated as facilitators, playing a role in passing on the baton of learning.

Tokuyama NIT is focusing on STEAM subjects such as "Problem Discovery Project" for first and second-year students, and international exchange, aiming to foster engineers who can play an active role globally in the coming era.

Workshop Overview

In addition to 4D members, three participants from the joint Japanese-Thai training at KOSEN-KMITL joined as facilitators for this workshop. A total of 25 people participated, including 12 students (2nd to 5th year) and 7 faculty members. Using "Elderly Care" as the challenge theme, a series of service design workshops were practiced over three days, including persona setting, customer journey map creation, problem extraction, service ideation, scenario creation, and presentation.

Furthermore, on June 5 (Fri), a Faculty Development (FD) training session for faculty members was held, and a seminar on "The Importance of Design Thinking and Service Design in the Digital Age" was delivered to approximately 50 attendees.

MOU Signing and Future Development

This MOU aims to establish a continuous cooperative relationship between 4D and Tokuyama NIT. In the future, a system will be developed where workshop alumni will lead new participants as guides, aiming to create an environment of cyclical learning among students. Collaboration with overseas national colleges of technology, including KOSEN-KMITL, is also being considered.

Comment from Ms. Megumi Abe, President of Tokuyama National College of Technology

To further enhance our educational activities, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for educational collaboration with 4D Inc. As part of this collaboration, we implemented a "3-day Educational Program for Service Design" this month (June) with the company's cooperation. In this program, students learned consistently from analyzing customers' latent needs to defining problems, devising UX (customer experience) to solve them, and further building the business model to support them. The students' proactive idea generation and their persistent approach to thinking about challenges left a strong impression. In this program, students who participated in the joint Japanese-Thai training workshop held at "KOSEN-KMITL (Thailand NIT)" in February 2026 served as facilitators, assisting their juniors' learning. It was an opportunity to realize the solid results of our college's international collaboration education, seeing the remarkable growth of students who had previously learned in training and were now in a teaching role. Furthermore, an FD (Faculty Development) training session for faculty members was also conducted this time. This was a meaningful training that will lead to the further development of our college's educational activities in the future. We will continue to promote practical and advanced educational activities in collaboration with 4D Inc.

Comment from Mr. Ryo Taguchi, Representative Director of 4D Inc.

This opportunity to implement our service design program at Tokuyama NIT in Japan arose from its partial provision and evaluation in Bangkok, Thailand, through the NIT international exchange program. Despite the challenging schedule, with English materials and immediately after final exams, the students' focus and dedication were truly remarkable. The faculty members also supported the program, and the students, warmly encouraged, successfully completed their final presentations.

Through this service design program, I believe the students learned to think for themselves and confront questions without a single correct answer. In actual work situations, no matter how thoroughly one considers an issue from various angles, it is not always possible to arrive at a "correct answer" that guarantees success. In their future learning, I hope they will not only acquire manufacturing skills but also broaden their horizons, understand the importance of communication, and enjoy working and creating together with others.

Background of the Initiative

The digital economy is rapidly growing in Southeast Asia, leading to a shortage of personnel with extensive design experience, a challenge also reflected in education. The design field requires handling a wide range of areas and integrating business and technology, but opportunities to acquire practical skills are insufficient. Consequently, companies struggle to find talented individuals, and post-hire training costs are high.

Driven by these challenges in local overseas hiring and a desire to promote design as a solution in industry, we decided to leverage the know-how accumulated by 4D through partnerships with universities in Thailand for human resource development. By 2025, we are providing design programs to six universities.

4D offers service design, branding, customer experience design, and continuous improvement support, primarily in Japan and Southeast Asia, and also conducts corporate training. In Okinawa, we are also involved in a project that combines regional problem-solving with human resource development in the digital design field.

By leveraging these experiences, we aim to accelerate organizational development and reduce training costs for companies in Thailand, while actively contributing to the field of design education.

Organization and Company Overview

National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College

President: Megumi Abe, Ph.D.

Location: Gakuen-dai, Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture

URL: https://www.tokuyama.ac.jp/index.html

Established: June 1974

4D Inc.

Service design, UX design, branding, digital product development, and support for design talent development. Operates mainly in Asia, including Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Representative: Ryo Taguchi, Representative Director & CEO

Location: Tanaka Koma Bldg., 8-5-32 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

URL: https://www.4digit.com/