Shiseido cans Ogi Island's dying miso as 'BEST AFTER 2055' — Spikes Asia 2026 Design GP

Ogi Miso is a locally made barley miso long enjoyed on Ogi Island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea, but the island's population is aging and shrinking, putting the tradition at risk of disappearing. Shiseido met the island through the Setouchi Triennale art festival and wanted a way to pass the food culture on.

Preserve Ogi Island's dying barley miso in cans engraved 'BEST AFTER 2055' — the year it could vanish — so every can is a time capsule that keeps the tradition alive.

Shiseido Creative designed the Ogi Miso Can: the miso preserved in canned form, with 'BEST AFTER 2055' engraved on the top — the projected year the miso could cease to exist — and the message that this may be the last Ogi Miso. The cans were created with island residents as both long-life food and a physical time capsule of culture.

The project won the Grand Prix in Design at Spikes Asia 2026, selected from 109 entries, and was also shortlisted in Brand Experience & Activation and Product Design; it additionally took Gold in Sustainable Design at ADFEST 2026, making an endangered local food into a collectible artifact.

Ogi Miso is a barley miso with a familiar homemade flavor that has been made on Ogi Island, a small island in western Japan's Seto Inland Sea, for generations. As the island's population ages and declines, the tradition is quietly at risk of disappearing.

Shiseido came to the island through the Setouchi Triennale international art festival and chose not to make a documentary or a charity appeal. Instead it preserved the food itself: the Ogi Miso Can holds the miso in canned form and carries the message that this may be the last Ogi Miso.

On the can's top, 'BEST AFTER 2055' is engraved — the projected year in which Ogi Miso could cease to exist if nothing changes. Designed in collaboration with island residents, the can works as both long-life food and a physical time capsule of the island's culture.

The idea traveled far beyond the island: 'BEST AFTER 2055' won the Grand Prix in Design at Spikes Asia 2026 out of 109 entries and took Gold in Product Design (Sustainable Design) at ADFEST 2026, turning an endangered local food into an award-winning artifact.

Preserving the actual food, not just a story about it, gives people something to taste, keep and pass on.

Engraving the predicted extinction date makes an abstract demographic trend concrete and urgent.

Working with island residents makes the cans their act of inheritance, not a brand's advertisement.

The can is both product and media: it communicates on every shelf without a campaign behind it.

To preserve a culture, preserve the thing itself: a dated, edible time capsule makes the loss concrete and gives people an act — buying, keeping, eating — rather than a warning.

The Ogi Miso Can became the centerpiece of a new approach to cultural preservation: experience-based design. After the Spikes Asia 2026 Design Grand Prix and an ADFEST 2026 Gold for sustainable design, Shiseido continued developing the project around the Setouchi Triennale, and the dated can is now cited as a model for keeping endangered food cultures alive in tangible form.