Initiatives in Response to Animal Testing and Alternative Methods

Initiatives towards Abolishing Animal Testing

Shiseido has established a safety assurance system based on alternative methods and has discontinued animal testing in cosmetics/quasi drugs that are developed in April, 2013 or later. This excludes cases in which we must explain the safety to society.
We will continue to develop effective alternative methods in the future and proactively and sternly work with administrative agencies in various countries with the aim of establishing alternative methods as official methods (to be certified as official experimental methods according to laws and regulations of various countries/regions).

See here for Shiseido’s commitment on alternatives to animal experiments

In Cases in Which We Must Explain the Safety to Society

This refers to cases in which we must prove again the safety of ingredients that are in the market and the only option in order to do so is animal testing, as well as cases in which animal testing is essential to assure the safety of cosmetics in some countries^*.

*some countries : In China, in order to guarantee the safety of imported cosmetics, safety studies including animal testing may be required.

Shiseido Safety Assurance System

Shiseido has established a system that assures the safety of raw materials without animal testing through the three steps of safety assurance by existing toxicological data, safety assurance by alternative methods, and final safety assurance by human-testing (regular use test and patch test on people under the supervision of doctors, etc.). We have also established the Discussion Panel on Cosmetics Safety Assurance Independent of Animal Testing, involving external experts and researchers, with the aim of discussing the scientific validity and social acceptance regarding this system.

Alternative Methods

Shiseido makes every possible effort to eliminate animal testing, through combined use of official safety information and literature information, accumulated safety databases, safety prediction systems based on chemical structures, and safety evaluation results from in vitro tests (tests carried out under artificially-constructed conditions, such as in test tubes) and tests on humans.
In Japan, we have set up a joint research of the Alternative Method Consortium with specialists outside the company, and have made public our successes at the symposium that we hold jointly with the Japanese Society for Alternative to Animal Experiments (JSAAE). Furthermore, we have actively participated in projects for validation and evaluation of alternative methods conducted by research groups supported by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and by the JSAAE since the initial periods of these research projects, working to encourage the spread and expansion of alternative methods in place of animal testing.

As for our efforts abroad, we have cooperated in developing and evaluating alternative methods, as an expert panel for the U.S.'s Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), and as a member of an industry-government-academia project for the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) and Cosmetics Europe (CE). For skin sensitization tests, which are vital for evaluating the safety of cosmetic ingredients, in partnership with Kao Corporation, we are currently developing the human Cell Line Activation Test (h-CLAT), and as a result of joint research both in Japan and abroad, verification research is now being commenced at the European Union Reference Laboratory on Alternative to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM).

We continue to work even more actively to improve alternative methods, in cooperation with the industries, government and academic bodies, both domestically with the Japan Cosmetic Industry Association, JSAAE and the Japanese Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (JaCVAM), and overseas with CE, EURL ECVAM, EPAA, the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), and ICCVAM.

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