Beauty Innovation
Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)
Chief Brand Innovation Officer (CBIO)
I was appointed head of research and development (R&D) at Shiseido in 2021. Ever since then, we have undertaken initiatives to reinvent brand innovation that is based on the consumer’s perspective. We accomplished a flurry of activities in 2022. We held a global R&D conference and started innovation creation activities aligned with the latest consumer trends in these locations initiated by each of our Regional Innovation Centers (RICs). We committed ourselves to cross-sectional projects best served through worldwide coordination, including projects to comply with raw materials regulations and those to utilize research findings in our products. We also strengthened collaboration between the Global Innovation Center (GIC) and our five Regional Innovation Centers (RICs) around the world. As a tangible outcome, these activities resulted in the creation of NARS Light Reflecting Foundation, a global bestseller, which is a success story for Shiseido's R&D team.
However, we still have a long way to go in terms of innovation reforms. There is still a large gap between where we are and where we need to be. What we hope to achieve are the following four areas:
- Reinvent ourselves into an R&D organization that exceeds consumer expectations and continuously produces innovations with competitive advantages
- Lead the industry in creating a sustainable society through circular value creation
- Create new businesses by challenging new areas and categories next to cosmetics
- Create an R&D team - comprised of the best global talents
With these points in mind, we uphold “We are the engine of BEAUTY INNOVATIONS” as our 2030 R&D Vision, and have established the three pillars of innovation: ”Skin Beauty INNOVATION,” “Sustainability INNOVATION,” “Future Beauty INNOVATION” and a very important approach of “De-Shiseido culture”; an approach breaking free from the status quo, as our strategy. Based on our strategy, R&D will tackle challenges one by one to achieve beauty innovation. Please stay tuned as the best is yet to come.
April 2023
Shiseido is committed to becoming the world’s No.1 skin beauty company as well as a Personal Beauty Wellness Company.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Shiseido’s research has a history of more than 100 years and has been a driving force behind innovation creation and safety, with a proven track record in material science and dermatology as well as world-leading dedicated safety department. In Today’s society, overflowing with technology and information, trust and authenticity are sought after, and we feel that the “ability to create authentic values based on scientific evidence,” which Shiseido has been fostering, is becoming increasingly important.
As CTO, I will strengthen our basic research and seed development research through optimizing resource allocation to realize higher productivity and accelerating the research setting and strategic partner selection to gain opportunities. At the same time, with a view to strengthening the value development in new domains, I will ensure to create research results and knowledge that will contribute to new businesses, such as inner beauty, beauty device, and the clarification of the relationship between skin, body and mind, and to establish development capabilities. To set the foundation, we will simultaneously work toward an end-to-end organization through our Brand Value R&D Institute while maximizing our R&D through the visualization of non-financial criteria that address areas including intellectual property, research findings, and the results of our creations and their adoption. And we will focus more than ever on our people, the source of value creation and competitive advantage. As the talent development takes time especially in basic research fields, we will build specialized training systems and provide support for career design.
Through these initiatives, Shiseido, as a company that aims to become the world’s No.1 skin beauty company, and moreover, a “Personal Beauty Wellness Company,” will refine our basic research and value creation capabilities to continue to provide “authentic values” and will realize new value provision.
April 2023
R&D and Value Creation
Research & Development (R&D) is the foundation of Shiseido’s innovation and a value creation driver.
Over our long history, we have built a strong research base through achieving both advanced functionality and safety. In addition to our strengths in dermatology, material science, and kansei research, we have constantly created new categories and markets such as approaches to aging and ultraviolet (UV) protection.
On the other hand, Shiseido faced a situation where our industry-leading R&D capabilities were not being fully leveraged into the brand growth and started the promotion of brand innovation reforms in 2021. We have integrated and reorganized the entire range of R&D functions including the appointment of Okabe, formerly Chief Brand Officer (CBO), as head of R&D. We have been working on initiatives that include the visualization of basic research results and findings, the establishment of our R&D philosophy DYNAMIC HARMONY, the formation of a one-stop system between R&D and our brands, and the active external communication of our R&D achievements.
In the two years to 2022, under the DYNAMIC HARMONY concept: we reinforced basic dermatology research, our greatest strength, introduced the latest research results such as Sun Dual Care technology etc. into global brands SHISEIDO and ANESSA, took on the challenges of new areas such as inner beauty, and progressed collaboration with universities and other industries, as well as increased collaboration between the GIC and RICs.
In 2023, we will continue to work relentlessly to implement reforms; we will establish 3 innovation pillars of “Skin Beauty INNOVATION,” "Sustainability INNOVATION,” and “Future Beauty INNOVATION,” as well as and an important approach of "De-Shiseido culture” as our strategy, and aim to realize a Personal Beauty Wellness Company, which is our vision in 2030.
R&D Structure
Shiseido reorganized and integrated entire R&D functions in 2021 to strengthen the creation of research results and findings with a view to providing higher quality values. The organization was realigned into the "Brand Value R&D Institute," responsible for rapid product development in collaboration with our brands, and the "MIRAI Technology Institute,” in charge of creating medium- to long-term "seeds" as well as value creation and business development in new domains.
Starting in 2023, we also reorganized the roles and responsibilities of our executive officers: the CIO Okabe is in charge of overall supervision, now he concurrently serves as CBIO, taking responsibility for the Brand Value R&D Institute, while Tojo, newly appointed as CTO this year, will be responsible for the MIRAI Technology Institute.
Globally, we have put in place a "multi-hub network" in which each of our R&D bases around the world gathers and understands the unique needs of local markets and conducts research and development of products and services that take advantage of regional unique characteristics. We have established the Global Innovation Center (GIC and five Regional Innovation Centers (RICs)—of which two are located in China and one each in the US, France, and Singapore), and we have a system that allows each region to generate innovations which contribute to local businesses and such innovation to be used in other regions as well.
Global Multi-Hub Network
DYNAMIC HARMONY
At Shiseido, through various analyses and internal and external hearings, we have derived R&D strengths and factors that differentiate us from our competitors, and derived our R&D philosophy “DYNAMIC HARMONY.”
The unique approaches possessed by Shiseido’s R&D can never be defined by a single value. East and West, fundamental healing and symptomatic treatment, Chinese herbal medicine and medical treatment, mind and body --- Skillfully fusing values which are seemingly conflicting or difficult to reconcile and creating dynamic harmony is a one-of-a-kind way of thinking unique to Shiseido. Under this philosophy, research approaches based on “DYNAMIC HARMONY” will be the mainstay of our R&D, and we will accelerate innovation generation through concentrated investment of management resources, while trying to visualize our strengths and to share them with external parties. These research approaches are one of the assets Shiseido has accumulated to date, and there is no end to the progress of DYNAMIC HARMONY. We will create further “DYNAMIC HARMONY” as the DNA of all our researchers and weave it into the future of Shiseido.
Future Strategies
To become a Personal Beauty Wellness Company, Shiseido will further focus on the areas of sustainability, digital technology, inner beauty, and beauty devices, building on our strengths in dermatology, material science, and kansei science. For these R&D directions, we have again established the following three pillars of innovations and an important approach as our strategy. To promote this strategy, we have set up core technologies and are drawing a roadmap to 2030.
Skin Beauty INNOVATION
This is the most important pillar of innovations, and its objective is to solidify the management foundation. Under this pillar, there are cosmetics areas including skin care, sun care, and base make-up, where we have a competitive advantage based on our strengths and the market size. Further, we are extending the innovation into the derma area, which is a trending new segment in skin care and is in high demand in Europe and the United States, or in the development of “second skin” technology, which is our new strong technology. Furthermore, we will expand the application of our strengths into beauty devices and ingestible beauty, as skin beauty segments other than cosmetics. We will create new beauty habits by anticipating purchasing behavior insights of the society and consumers, and applying our cutting-edge technology.
Core technologies: cosmetic formulation technology, skin base research, kansei research, and material research, etc.Sustainability INNOVATION
An innovation pillar which aims at leading the industry in circular-type value creation, which fuses economic and social value to realize a sustainable society.
Based on the words “Banbutsu Shisei (which means nurturing new life and bringing forth significant values),” the origin of the name Shiseido, we will make our raw materials, formulas, and packaging more sustainable and realize new circular-type value creation through collaboration with external companies. In 2022, we launched an initiative for the building of a new circular model of plastic cosmetics packaging through collaboration with SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO., LTD. and Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd, and in 2023, we launched "BeauRing," a project to collect and recycle plastic containers and started pilot test together with POLA ORBIS HOLDINGS INC. While we accelerate these efforts, we will also expand into related areas such as clean formulation technology, which is a trending category in the United States and Europe.
Future Beauty INNOVATION
An innovation pillar which creates new domains and categories next to cosmetics, which exceed expectations of consumers, such as new skin beauty experience based on data science and measurements. Its aim is to achieve mid- to long-term growth. For example, in a new diagnostic area, we aim to provide a wide range of solutions that go beyond cosmetics by uncovering the relationship between the skin, body, and mind. As a research base for this, we launched a new course at Hirosaki University in 2022 and also concluded a comprehensive partnership agreement on data analysis with DeNA Life Science, Inc. to acquire and analyze big data.
Core technologies: clarification of the relationship between the skin, body, and mind.Collaboration with RICs and “De-Shiseido” Culture
In order to realize this kind of strategic approach, it is important to break away from traditional Japan-centric value development and create a diverse R&D team, and accelerate innovation.
Shiseido will further refine its cosmetics area, which has been our strength, and create innovations originating from each RIC by leveraging the knowledge and strengths of each region. For example, clean formulas in the US, sustainability and microbiomes in Europe, and medical beauty in China can be some of the keywords. We will also focus more than before on co-creation through partnerships with universities and other research institutions, other industries external partners, and startups, learning and incorporating the processes and knowledge of the value creation of our partners. The signing of a comprehensive collaboration agreement with the Keio University Institute for Advanced Biosciences in 2022 is one example of this focus action. Through this agreement which aims not only to create innovations but also to develop talents, we intend to produce new R&D leaders unbound by conventional frameworks.
We will continue to invest approximately 3% of net sales as R&D expenses. Under the DYNAMIC HARMONY philosophy, we will combine our brand concept and science, concentrate resources on priority areas, increase the speed of the product commercialization process, and maximizing ROI through the broad utilization of our research results.
R&D Case Studies
Based on the philosophy of “DYNAMIC HARMONY,” research projects are progressing continuously.
Here are some of the major research and development cases announced in 2022.
“Inside/Outside” Revealing facial appearance aging from inside the skin
- The most recent of "Anti-gravity Science V” (Dermal Anchoring Structures, Dermal Cavitation phenomenon, discovery of Dermal Cell Network, etc.)
- The findings of "Anti-gravity Science V," including the results of this research received the top award at the IFSCC (International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists) Congress for four consecutive years
- We focused on the “Dynamic Belt,” a flow of hair muscles as a system to resist skin deformation caused by gravity
- We discovered that skin sagging is caused by the loss of this Dynamic Belt, due to the weakening of the hair muscles caused by aging
“Inside/Outside” approaches to skin aging from immune cells working inside the skin
- Discovery through the fusion of Shiseido's 40 years of collagen research and immunology research
- Revealed the relationship between two types of macrophages (M1 and M2) and skin aging (presented the results at the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Anti-Aging Medicine in 2022 and received the Best Presentation Award)
- Shifted our approach from collagen "production" to collagen "metabolism," focusing on M2 macrophages which digest denatured collagen
- Improve the macrophage balance by controlling IL-34 factor and propose new beauty care
“Premium/Sustainability” Sustainable, yet not giving up the luxury of cosmetics
- As a major action of the 2025 goal of “100% sustainable packaging,” we adopted LiquiFormⓇ technology, which forms the container with the liquid content at the time of filling, developing a sustainable and replaceable cosmetics container
- No need to transport empty containers prior to filling and no concerns of damaging or deforming during transport, allowing thinner packaging designs and reducing CO₂ emissions and the amount of plastic used
- Provides a sustainable beauty experience with recyclable and replaceable cosmetics containers which fully use LiquiFormⓇ technology as well as the main body containers with improved durability and beauty
- Achieved an approximately 70% reduction in CO₂ emissions in the entire supply chain compared to our standard conventional replaceable container (same volume).
- World's first product using this technology in cosmetics was launched by SHISEIDO in March 2023
Our “Inside/Outside” The power of science penetrates functional ingredients into the skin
- Developed a method to allow high molecular weight hyaluronic acid to penetrate the skin without compromising its function leveraging our long history of hyaluronic acid research
- Succeeded in reducing the size of hyaluronic acid molecules and enhancing penetration by controlling the electric charge that causes the spreading out of hyaluronic acid molecules with cosmetic ingredients
- Also succeeded in increasing the size of hyaluronic acid again, restoring its water-holding capacity, and performing the original function of hyaluronic acid
- “MolecuShift Technology,” which adjusts the size of hyaluronic acid molecules, was incorporated into products launched from SHISEIDO in October 2022 (in Europe, it was launched earlier in September 2022)
Related Data
Oral Presentation, Basic Research
Oral Presentation
(2.9% of net sales)
(2.5% of net sales)
(2.5% of net sales)
Awards Received at IFSCC Congresses and Conferences / Comparison with Domestic and International Competitors
