Milano Salone, the trade fair for design, takes place in the northern part of Milan every spring. It's a general name for The International Furniture Trade Fair and the design events held in the metropolitan. This, its 47th year, will be open between April 16 to 21this year. During the fair, furniture makers, buyers, designers, architects, media etc. from all over the world are attracted. Milano Salone surely plays an important role as centre of furniture and interior design trends.
Every year since 2000 makers and groups exhibit in The International Furniture Trade Fair, which is the main part of the whole exhibition. It is broadly divided into four groups: classic, modern, high-fashion designer interiors, and fusion. You can find a number of furniture makers' spectacular booths all in a row in each section. The entire exhibition includes other trade fairs: housing related goods; kitchen; office furniture; bathroom furniture; and Salone Satellite, the fair for young up-and-coming designers. With all these fairs, Milano Salone is known as a world trade fair of productions to color our living space. More than 200,000 people visited this year. It has been an amazing international fair that increases its total attendance by about 20% every year.

During the fair, you can see other exhibitions for new products held by makers and designers and presentations made by various kinds of groups in their showrooms and galleries in the city through day and night. Memorial exhibitions of famous designers and experimental exhibitions for design are also available in art and regular museums. These exhibitions are considered different from The International Furniture Trade Fair, and the general name is known as Fuori Salone. In recent years, more Japanese companies are joining the fair. LEXUS, exhibiting for their forth time, are going to introduce 'nendo,' by designer Mr. Oki Sato. NATIONAL is having their first exhibition there. With two designers; Mr. Naoto Fukasawa and Ms. Patricia Urquiola, they are going to promote their goods while producing their way of coloring space. CANON intends to collaborate with a fashion designer, Tamae Hirokawa in order to create the space with maximum use of their high-definition printers, which can print out large-sizes. Furthermore, I, Mr. Kiriyama, am the chief producer for the company.
In a group division, the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization is going to have 'Japan Design 2008 - Innovation' in Milan as their second exhibition, under the supervision of Mr. Toshiyuki Kita. They plan to provide the place for some Japanese makers such as Willcom, Itoki, Victor, and Ricoh, to give them an opportunitiy to introduce their products. Sozo_comm, the organization supported by the government to stimulate the exports of small and medium-sized companies such as Karimoku, Soejima Isao Shoten, and Ritzwell, is going to exhibit those companies' fine products being used in daily life. Milano Salone with all the designs exhibits, has become one of the driving forces to develop world business. It is no longer just a fair, but a 'Festival for Design' which has functions to influence the world. Milano Salone, where people check design trends, exchange opinions, and gather information, is the very opportunity to meet the leading edge of world trends. This is the place you feel a sensation of how deeply design is involved with not only industries and economies, but also management strategies. (Kiriyama)