Previously known as "Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization" (JIDPO), which was founded in 1969 on the basis of a report submitted by the Design Council of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Since June 2011, the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP), still remains as the only organisation in Japan involved in the comprehensive promotion of design activities. Since its foundation, it has been involved in an ongoing series of promotional activities with the cooperation of government agencies, industrial bodies, and individual designers. These activities have included implementation of the sponsorship of the "Good Design Awards" (the so-called "G-Mark"), Design News, Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, and the Reconstruction Support Design Center, which was created in light of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake disaster in March 2011.