They are all based in Stockholm, aged in their 30s, established in their field and they are all women. For Christina Sollenberg Britton, editor in chief of international fashion, design and lifestyle magazine Stockholm New, they are representative of a welcome change and something worth sharing.

As part of Swedish Style in Tokyo, her magazine presented a group exhibit by the four women -- Maria Forster, Anki Gneib, Sanna Hansson and Anna von Schewen -- at the Matsuya department store in Tokyo's Ginza district from Oct. 10 to 15.

The exhibition title, "That's Some Fine Swedish Feminine Form," was at once ironic and celebratory. Women designers, Sollenberg Britton noted recently in the magazine Stockholm New, make up the majority at design schools (she is also a teacher at Beckman's school of design in Stockholm) but are still a minority in the professional design world. Only in recent years, however, have changes in the business world and social mind-set -- e.g., more women-driven startups, more flexible family roles -- set the stage for the emergence of more women in the field.

But, though women designers are on the increase, they don't seem to be getting the same recognition as their male colleagues. The four women exhibiting here have had work commissioned by such big-name companies as IKEA and Kosta Boda and hosted numerous exhibitions across Europe, but have yet to establish their names internationally.

As Ewa Kumlin, Swedish Style project manager, commented: "When I started working on this project, I realized that Japanese people knew mostly about Swedish male designers in their 40s. I wanted to get younger women represented over here."

But first she had to seek them out.

"We are exhibiting here," said Gneib, "because people, including Sollenberg Britton, wondered why we only used to hear about men when it came to designers."

The fact is, she said, "loads of women work as creators."

The four Stockholm-based designers had never before worked together as a group. And though eager to change the image of design as a man's world, the works they brought with them -- a carpet, shelf, chair, bean-bag, lamps, tables and chairs -- were chosen to highlight not their "femininity" but their creativity and adaptability as well as the diversity of design in general.

Forster's silicon lamps, quite resistant to cold and heat, look like sandblasted UFOs. Hansson's wooden "Walking Table" has legs resembling those of a horse in motion (it's name is a play on the Swedish expression for buffet-style eating).

Creativity aside, Hansson said, "It is important that I look into what people need and want, and how I can meet these needs. Many designers are so commercial that they spit out one thing after another without taking care of our cultural heritage."

Or without considering who will use their products. One consequence of the traditional male dominance in the design world is that furniture has been proportioned to the male body. Claes Britton, who is husband to Sollenberg Britton and is in Tokyo representing Stockholm New as coeditor in chief, notes that couches, for instance, are often deep to accommodate the length of a man's legs.

For this exhibition, the women concentrated on adapting their products to the style and size of Japanese homes. Forster had her original bean-bag couch, "Bob," reduced in size by 25 percent. Gneib also shrunk some of her work and "chose to bring my chest of drawers because it feels a bit Japanese."

According to von Schewen, many designers in Sweden are fascinated with Japanese aesthetics. "Swedes have a real feel for nature and so do the Japanese. We recognize one another when it comes to aesthetics because we speak the same language -- simplicity and respect for material."