One of the most remarkable business pivots in beauty comes from a company that may surprise you: Fujifilm. In 2007, as traditional cameras began fading into irrelevance, Fujifilm pulled a corporate plot twist few saw coming. Instead of sinking with the ship (ahem, Kodak), they leveraged their vast research portfolio—including a library of 200,000 chemical compounds cultivated through years of R&D in photosensitive materials—and entered the beauty industry. Drawing on their expertise in preserving photographic film, Fujifilm set their sights on the new frontier of anti-aging skincare. The result was Astalift, a skincare brand that helped Fujifilm survive and thrive in an entirely new industry. Fujifilm isn’t the only Japanese business smashing a cross-category lift-and-shift. Beverage giant Suntory, frozen food titan Nichirei, and sake maker Nihonsakari have all successfully ventured into skincare. When industries collapse, the most visionary companies don’t adapt—they evolve, finding new ways to apply their expertise and reinvent their futures.
This ethos of innovation, reinvention and cross-industry exploration has been a hallmark of Japanese beauty for decades (with Astalift continuing to lead from the edge, as I’ll touch on below). J-Beauty’s rich legacy of staying ahead of the curve means that it’s consistently pushing 5-10 years ahead of the Western market—whether it’s ambitious R&D, the integration of cutting-edge technology, groundbreaking retail merchandising or inventive product naming. By the end of 2024, Japan’s beauty and personal care market is projected to generate over $47 billion in revenue. This matters because J-Beauty often has a trickle-down effect, influencing beyond the global beauty industry to impact retail, technology and consumer behaviour across markets.
I was recently in Tokyo and couldn’t resist dipping into the city’s legendary beauty stores to see what’s up. Here are five trends that caught my eye and stayed on my mind: