The Role of Kansei/Affective Engineering and Its Expected in Aging Society

Abstract

Kansei engineering originally evolved as a way to “introduce human ‘Kansei’ into manufacturing.” The recent trend indicates that the development of Kansei engineering is expanding beyond manufacture and design and is widening into relevant fields, creating one of the most conspicuous features of Kansei engineering. This trend can also be felt by presentations made at the recent annual conferences of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering. It is needless to say, therefore, some kind of interdisciplinary development is necessary to find a mechanism for creating Kansei values, which is as important as the Kansei values themselves. This paper consists of three parts. The first part of this paper describes the general history of Kansei and the basic stance and concept of Kansei research. Second part discusses the significance and roles of creating Kansei values in Kansei engineering and also provides basic ideas that will serve as future guidelines, with its positioning in mind debating from many aspects. Finally, the paper emphasizes the necessity for Kansei communication in the Ageing society. It is important for the Kansei communication to give birth to the empathy.