Sources of Value CreationResearch & Innovation

Shiseido has consistently pursued research & innovation activities on the latest technologies. Going forward, in addition to leveraging its long-cultivated cosmetic technologies that prioritize safety, Shiseido will continue to offer products with value exceeding that of conventional cosmetics. By doing so, we will realize Beauty Innovations that lead to new lifestyles for people around the world.

Strengths Cultivated Over Our 100-Year History

Since establishing the Testing Room in 1916, which handled product development and improvement, Shiseido has promoted research & innovation activities that combine Eastern and Western science with a focus on beauty. Throughout this history, we have cultivated three core strengths that cannot be easily imitated by our competitors.

The first strength is safety. We endeavor to research, develop, and manufacture products and services that truly satisfy our consumers and offer outstanding levels of safety, always with the consumer in mind. In addition to laws and regulations, we adhere to strict, independent safety standards to offer products that guarantee safety without compromise. We meticulously select ingredients giving consideration to the part of the body where the product will be applied and its amount and take steps to only include ingredients that we have fully confirmed as safe to use.

Another strength is our holistic anti-aging care technologies that focus substantially on inner beauty. For many years, we have been engaging in research based on Western science in a quest to clarify the cause-and-effect relationship between the inner body and skin, a relationship that closely pertains to the concepts of Eastern medicine, including body heat maintenance, blood circulation, and the nervous system. This kind of approach, which combines Eastern and Western ideas, has helped support our core skincare brands and enabled us to provide value that fundamentally differs from that offered by our competitors in Europe and the Americas.

The third strength is our sensibilities. Unlike pharmaceuticals, cosmetics need to establish a deep connection with the people who use them, including the comfort and enjoyment that comes from using cosmetics every day. Accordingly, throughout our history we have placed importance on painstaking research into sensibilities to enhance product value. We are currently working from a neuroscientific and psychological perspective to establish technologies capable of creating high-quality textures that will enhance consumer desire to continue to use our products. For texture design, we used to mainly employ a subjective approach in which an expert group of researchers designed textures based on personal judgment alone. However, we are now incorporating objective indicators that utilize measurement data, thereby allowing us to realize textures that are even more attractive to our consumers.

Progress of the Three-Year Plan (2018 to 2020)

Over the past three years, we have implemented strategic investments in our research & innovation activities. In particular, we reinforced our fundamental research capabilities, enhanced our research & innovation human resources, and fortified our ability to develop cosmetics at overseas bases. As a result, we have bolstered functions that help us understand the needs of consumers in each region of operation and reflect those needs in our products and services. Furthermore, in April 2019 we established the Global Innovation Center (GIC) in Yokohama. Until 2019, we had been implementing a hub-and-spoke network under which we conduct our fundamental research at our laboratories in Japan and then extend the results of that research overseas. From 2019, we have further evolved this network, transforming it into a multi-hub network where our eight research bases around the world, including the GIC, roll out their respective insight and research results on a global basis.

R&I Global Network

Efforts to Realize Further Innovations

Our innovation strategy going forward revolves around three major elements.

The first is the focus on consumers. Our GIC differs from the research centers of other companies in that it is located in a major urban area. Its location allows the GIC to welcome a large number of visitors every day, helping us promote co-creation initiatives and understand the latent concerns and needs of consumers regarding beauty. Through these initiatives and insight, we are able to realize new innovations.

The next major element of our innovation strategy is the development of technologies that contribute to a sustainable society. For many years, we have pursued such efforts as developing packaging that is even more eco-friendly. At the moment, we are working to resolve the issue of marine pollution and leverage the limited amount of resources available in the most effective way possible. Furthermore, we are actively making use of biodegradable packaging for our cosmetics. In addition to packaging, we are developing original technologies and pursuing external collaboration to ensure that our raw material procurement and formula development have a minimal impact on the environment. By doing so, we will create value that is truly beautiful.

The final element is the promotion of open innovation and the development of new products and services realized through such innovation. To create synergistic effects by combining our core strengths of safety, holistic anti-aging care technologies, and sensibilities with the technologies of external organizations, we will take on challenges in new domains together with new business partners, start-up companies, universities, and research institutions.

Additionally, we will focus on integrating digital technologies with the research we conduct at the GIC. At the Technology Acceleration Hub, which we opened in the United States, we are engaging in the development of digital technologies. By incorporating these technologies into the diverse range of research we conduct at the GIC, including research on consumer behavior and dermatology, we will be able to better respond to the personalization domain, which is expected to grow even further going forward. Within this domain, we will create new beauty, digital, and counseling experiences.

We ask that you continue to look forward to the research & innovation activities of Shiseido as we work to realize “BEAUTY INNOVATIONS FOR A BETTER WORLD.”

Yoichi Shimatani Representative Director
Executive Vice President