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Shiseido starts operation of Global Innovation Center

Shiseido’s new research hub, the Shiseido Global Innovation Center (GIC, also referred to as S/PARK), will commence full-scale operation in the Minato Mirai 21 area in Yokohama, Japan from April.

SEE ALSO : Shiseido opens a new factory in Fukuoka

shiseido centre
Source : Shiseido

As an urban open lab, the GIC supports and promotes comprehensive communication and collaboration with consumers, researchers, business partners and experts inside and outside of Japan, achieving new, flexible and diverse working styles and inspiring researchers’ creativity and imaginations through the state-of-the-art research facilities and equipment of its newly styled offices.

Through these activities, Shiseido achieves “the fusion of diverse people and knowledge” to create unprecedented value. The GIC will open its public communication spaces on the first and second floors starting Saturday, April 13, 2019 and welcomes the interaction of visitors.

By creating and communicating innovations of Japanese origin beyond borders and across industries, Shiseido strives to accomplish its new corporate mission: BEAUTY INNOVATIONS FOR A BETTER WORLD.

R&D policy

Shiseido Company, Limited (“Shiseido”) was established as a Western-style pharmacy in 1872, and opened its Testing Room in 1916 for the purposes of product development and improvement. Since then, Shiseido has created high-quality products on the strength of its fundamental research into sensitivity analysis, safety and reliability, and dermatology for over 100 years. Today, Shiseido’s global research centers, located in five countries including Japan, are engaged in various research and development activities to study and analyze the skin conditions and makeup activities of consumers in each region.

Going forward, and aiming to take the lead in an ever-diverse global market, Shiseido will enhance its research in digital and environmental technologies. In addition, the company will accelerate its research and development centered on three key categories: 1) The Cosmetics, the improvement cosmetics research, 2) New Category, the proposal of unprecedented areas on the cosmetics spectrum, and 3) Unlimited Beauty, the exploration of new beauty solutions going beyond cosmetics. To this end, Shiseido will shift its research style, integrating outside expertise with its continuing focus on new findings. Through these activities, Shiseido offers new value and aims to “Be a Global Winner with Our Heritage.”

GIC (S/PARK) overview

The first and second floors of the GIC are a dedicated open communication space where visitors and researchers can interact, offering various content based on the concept of “get inspired by beauty.” The open communication spaces are produced by Mr. Kundo Koyama (Orange and Partners) and designed by Mr. Naoki Sato (nendo).

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The collaboration area on the fourth floor includes a lab for joint research with outside institutes and a space for business negotiations, which is quite unique for a research center. Superior research facilities and equipment to support various fundamental research are installed on the fifth through fifteenth floors. Thanks to an out-of-the-box office layout, researchers can pursue more flexible and diverse working styles, while ad hoc work and communication spaces welcome to the free-flowing exchange of ideas and opinions.