Otawara (Japan) (AFP)

On a brownfield site in Otawara, a small city north of Tokyo, the Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido has just inaugurated its first factory in Japan for 36 years to capitalize on the "made in Japan", a powerful selling point.

Shiseido was the Asia-Pacific leader in the high-end cosmetics segment in 2018, with an 11 percent market share, according to research firm Euromonitor.

But outside of Japan, competition is fierce in the region with foreign behemoths like the French L'Oreal and LVMH, the American Estée Lauder or the South Korean Amore Pacific.

Particularly innovative, the South Korean cosmetics, or "K-beauty" has been very active in export in recent years, surfing particularly on the popularity in Asia of K-pop and "dramas", the country's television series .

But the Japanese "J-beauty" is not left behind: its exports have almost quadrupled since 2013 to reach 546 billion yen (4.5 billion euros) last year, according to data from the Ministry of Finance. More than 60% of these exports are destined for China and Hong Kong.

Cosmetics sales in Japan are also dynamic, boosted by the explosion of tourism in the archipelago in recent years, thanks to the easing since 2015 of visa procedures for Chinese visitors, foreign tourists most fond of products. beauty from Japan.

- Expert hands -

In addition to the Otawara plant, Shiseido plans to open two more production sites in the country by 2022, for a total cost of 120 billion yen (1 billion euros). A pace of industrial development unpublished in the history of the firm, yet nearly 150 years old.

The choice of Japan has become obvious, says Shiseido CEO Masahiko Uotani in an interview with AFP.

"We focus on high-end brands, where consumers see the value of Japanese culture, so strategically we tell them: + These brands come from Japan, they were designed in Japan + and it becomes a competitive advantage very important, "according to the CEO.

Despite higher labor costs than elsewhere in Asia, other Japanese cosmetics groups have already adopted a similar strategy: in 2017, Kosé for example sold its factory in China to boost its capacity instead. production in Japan.

"When it's possible we introduce robots, artificial intelligence and digital production technologies," says Uotani. "But in the luxury cosmetics segment, production volumes are not necessarily very high" and human capital is important, he said.

In the Otawara factory, for example, if a machine is responsible for filling the bottles, it is employees in white, blue or pink combinations who then screw the corks to the chain with an expert gesture: their shapes are too varied and the quantities of each lot too limited to automate this process effectively, says Shiseido.

- "Electro-beauty" -

"With quality ingredients, luxurious formulations, elegant packaging and know-how, cosmetics stamped + made in Japan + are gaining attractiveness in Asian and Western markets," confirms Mitsue Konishi, an analyst at the research firm GlobalData questioned by AFP.

The J-Beauty is also known for its high technicality: Japanese consumers appreciate the beauty rituals combining cosmetics and electronic objects, or "electro-beauty", a trend that remains a niche elsewhere in the world.

This week, Kao, another important Japanese group in the sector, has for example launched in Japan the commercialization of a spray developed with Panasonic that sprays ultra-fine fibers, which form by gluing a moisturizing mask for the face. An innovation that however required ten years of research.

This is the other side of the Japanese cosmetics medal: "The security and quality are high, but the controls are long", as the time of product development, notes Shima Yamanaka, analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities interviewed by the AFP.

In contrast, South Koreans "are quite efficient, their product development times are short, which allows them to be very responsive to the market," admits the CEO of Shiseido.

© 2019 AFP