Sex toy in then out for good design award

Japan’s Good Design Production Selection System, which is commonly known as the "G-Mark", is a design evaluation and commendation system that has been awarded every year from 1957 to products that manifest "excellence in terms of their design or function." Products that are recognized with the prestigious "G-Mark" award are entitled to carry stickers proclaiming the fact, and this can help boost sales.

Competition for the awards has been fierce since its inauguration, with companies in sectors such as the human body, living, work, and society all going the extra mile to win one. In 2009, for example, in the human body sector, Panasonic received a "G-Mark" award for an ultrasound scanner and Toto received one for a series of products for use in public restrooms.

The members of the committee that selects winners of the award were, however, faced with a dilemma in 2006, when a sexual toy designed to provide male relief beat off (no pun intended) a number of competing products in the first round. The designers of the artificial organ were pulsating with pride at the prospect seeing their artifact on public display with the other 2,500 finalists. And they were shaking with anger when it was disqualified in the second round.

It is not known how the function of the product escaped the attention of the judges in the first round, especially when the reason for disqualifying the product before it went of public display in the second round was: “We are unable to test the product’s performance or function in public.” Are we to believe that in the first round, members of the committee, some of whom are female, tested the product privately? “It was the first time we had experienced an application for this type of product,” said a spokesman for the committee, “and we have had real problems dealing with it.

The president of the company that manufactured the product said, “Everyone at the company is upset at the decision to disqualify our product because we put more than just our hearts and souls into developing it.”