The Shiseido China Research Center was opened in Beijing in April 2002 in an effort to fuse Chinese historical and cultural assets with Shiseido's strengths in research technology, and to offer customers new values through a range of cosmetics rooted in Chinese medicine.
The major driving factors in establishing the Center were: (1) A desire to study Chinese consumers' skin and hair, as well as their makeup practices, and to develop products for the Chinese market; and (2) Our wish to research Chinese medicine and develop concepts for potential products for the global market.
Indeed, the Center has already proved to be effective. It was a vital part of the development of Chinese exclusives such as Aupres Eternal Total Recharge Cream, which was launched in November 2004, and Sinoadore, the product brand steeped in Chinese medicine launched in Japan in August the same year.
As a part of the Shiseido Group's global R&D network, not only does the China Research Center develop products aimed at winning over Chinese consumers, but it is also busy forging academic networks with local research institutions and universities in order that we can conduct the kind of research into Chinese medicine that is only possible in that country. The Center will continue to develop new beauty concepts such as cosmetics, beauty treatments and health- and beauty-oriented nutritional products based on Chinese medicine, and to offer the whole world new beauty values.
Looking to shed light on the structure and function of skin—much of which remains undiscovered—we at Shiseido, together with the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, set up the MGH/Harvard Cutaneous Biology Research Center (CBRC) in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1989. The CBRC brings together researchers of a diverse range of specialist fields including (but certainly not limited to) molecular and cellular biology and clinical dermatology to conduct basic research into skin—not just skin diseases, but healthy skin as well.
The Center has made a number of achievements. For instance, it was first in the world to confirm that Langerhans cells, one of the immune system cells that exist within human skin, come into contact with and interact with nerves. This discovery subsequently led to the NICE theory about the relationship between the heart and skin, and thus made a great contribution to the advancement of skin science.
NICE theory: A groundbreaking theory that says that making the heart feel good by providing comforting stimulation through a psychosomatic network within the body causes the secretion of homeostasis, which revitalize the skin and help to achieve skin that is full of life and that features a higher level of resistance and recuperative power.
