Total cosmetic production in Japan last year was valued at an equivalent of US$90.3 Billion, a 2.0% improvement on the previous year, and the amount has steadily increased over the past three years.
By category, skin-care products output was by far the largest, accounting for a little over one-third of the total, followed by hair-care products, contrastively the share of fragrances such as perfume and eau de cologne come to no more than 2% or so. In Japan cosmetics are mainly regulated by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law under the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The Pharmaceutical Affairs Law stipulates that all cosmetics to be marketed in Japan must be licensed by the Minister of Health and Welfare. The requirement applies to both domestic products and imports.
In case of cosmetics containing only ingredients having precedents of license in Japan, including the case of the application of simple formulation or of the change from only one ingredient to another, it takes about 3 months to get license for each product. Then, MHW undertook an investigation into ways of streamlining and speeding up the screening process and in 1985 adopoted a new procedure known as “Comprehensive Licensing System of Cosmetics by Category (abbreviation: CLS)”. Under CLS, standards are established for product categories such as shampoo, lipstick, eye shadow, etc., listing the names and specifications of ingredients having a precedent of license in Japan for each category; these standards may, if necessary, set forth the maximum allowable quantities of any listed ingredients.
August in 1991, it enacted the standard of 5 categories such as suntan and sunscreen oils, bath preparations. Therefore, 35 categories in all are already enacted.

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We developed new hybrid powders which consist of nylon-12 powder as a core material and zinc oxide as a wall material by mechanochemical methods. In the hybrid process, aggregates of zinc oxides were crushed by collision with nylon-12 powders and then the nylon-12 powders were covered and fixed tightly with the crushed zinc oxides. We found that the hybrid powders had stronger UV defensive ability than zinc oxides alone and they had superior covering power and stability.

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Liposomes have been prepared from several types of soybean hydrogenated phospholipids by using polyols. Permeability properties of liposomes thus prepared were studied by measuring the release of glucose incorporated into liposomes. The liposomes constituted with phospholipids containing large amounts of phosphatidylethanolamine or phosphatidic acid (phosphatidylcholine (PC purity: 20%) showed the high glucose permeability around room temperature and the remarkable temperature-dependent permeability. This tendency was independent with increasing the amount of PC (PC purity: 66%). The liposomes with phospholipids containing only PC (PC purity: 100%) showed very low permeability until their transition temperature (Tc) and when increasing PC concentration, the amount of trapped glucose became larger and the glucose permeability were reduced. The permeability of glucose through liposomes was enhanced drastically at their Tc, while the incorporation of cholesterol into liposomes suppressed the enhanced permeation rates of glucose above the Tc. The incorporation of 100% of cholesterol showed the most reduced effects on the temperature-dependent permeability through liposomes. The effect of polyols on the permeability of liposomes were studied. In the case of glycerin, the dependence of the permeability on temperature was much weaker than liposomes by 1, 3-butylene glycol, propylene glycol and dipropylene glycol. The increase of polyols contents had no effect on the glucose permeability of liposomes. It is suggested that the purity of phospholipids and the amount of cholesterol are the most important factors on the permeability of liposomes and the high purity of phospholipids and the incorporation of cholesterol are necessary to obtain the stable liposomes.

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Based on a video taped study of human hand movements during palpation, a robot type measuring device was developed with tactile functions designed to discriminate precise dynamic properties of human skin without imposing posture restrictions on the subject. The method measures the stress response of the skin when it is depressed by a single probe according to a designated strain-time program.
The device consists of a probe mounted signal detector in which a strain gauge applied as a tactile sensor detects stress from the probe, a moving vertical articulated arm which allows the necessary degree of freedom for measurement, and a micro computer which drives the entire system by a feedback loop generated while analyzing the output signals received from the sensor probe.
In the initial experiments the instrument measured the dynamic properties of several pliant silicone rubber devices closely resembling human skin in terms of softness. The physical quantities derived from the detected stress, on the other hand, were compared to pair tested, human pshychological evaluations of the softness or elasticity of the same samples.
Subsequent experiments confirmed the reproducibility of the measuring methods when they were applied to human cheeks. Correlations of softness and elasticity were obtained between the robot device and practical palpations. An “Softening Effect” was confirmed on measuring cheeks before and after facial treatment.
These experiments suggest the potential value of a palpation robot following the successful realization of the analysis of the stress changes and dynamic properties of human skin through an obiective process.

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New instrumental method and apparatus that allow us to compare the effect of hair cosmetics on smoothness of human hair has been developed.
Usually hair smoothness or roughness is felt when the hair is touched with the fingers. From this touch action the condition of the hair after putting on hair cosmetic is felt and the quality of hair cosmetics is often evaluated.
During this research project a new instrumental method was developed. It allows us quantitative evaluation of the feel of smoothness at the time of touching hair. It was also confirmed that the actual feeling evaluated by expert panels agreed with the friction value measured by this apparatus.
In addition this apparatus was improved by making it smaller, and by using the improved apparatus the direct measurement on the hair of a human's head became possible.

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A lamellar liquid crystalline system containing a large amount of oil was formed by combination of a branched nonionic surfactant and a polyol. As it is bicontinuous to both oil and water phases, the oil-based make-up cosmetics are easily dissolved and dispersed in it. Furthermore, the phase transition induced by water evaporation during the rubbing enhances the efficiency of the dissolution of oily dirt because of the abolishment of the liquid crystal structure.
In the rinsing-off process, the fine emulsion droplets are formed by passing through the liquid crystalline phase, and the oil component of the liquid crystal make-up remover dissolving the impurities can be easily removed from the skin.
It is concluded that the LC remover has a strong cleansing ability, yet it is mild on the skin without providing it a significant damage.

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