As Director at Panasonic Design Center Europe, Toru Abe is responsible for development of design ideas, research and generation & verification of hypothesis within a marketplace.

Furthermore he is in charge of establishment of design strategy (design identity) and verification of marketability. He has been working at Panasonic since 1988, as both designer and later as manager of advanced design.

About Panasonic:
Panasonic Corporation is one of the largest product manufacturers in the world. It manufactures and markets a wide range of products under the Panasonic brand to enhance and enrich lifestyles all around the globe.

Throughout the years, Panasonic has actively promoted universal design. Among their universal design products, the tilted drum washer/dryer has greatly affected the entire company, which has lead to the development of many other universal design products. Panasonic’s universal design products have received appraisal around the world as their professional computer, Flashlight and Neck-strap LED lLight have received Germany’s Universal Design Award (*).

In the company's home-market Japan, Panasonic's product exhibition center presents its own inventive Universal Design solutions as well as its basic approach to Universal Design.

* Started in 2008 as a collaborative project by the Universal Design GmbH and the iF International Forum Design GmbH which also hosts the iF Awards. Selections are made from around the globe for the best universal design products.

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