Aldebaran’s socially-conscious cosmetics help revitalize local economies in Japan
OEM company Aldebaran supports the manufacturing of cosmetics made from regional specialty products in Japan, including agricultural produce, with the goal of revitalizing regional communities. We took a closer look at this endeavor.
With the mission of using cosmetics manufacturing to solve issues faced by regional areas in Japan, such as declining populations and job opportunities, Osaka-based Aldebaran Inc. is an OEM company that supports the complete product creation process, from turning local materials into ingredients for cosmetics to the planning, development, manufacture and market cultivation of said products.
CEO Tatsuo Kurebe says that Aldebaran receives daily inquiries about using agricultural products from regional areas as ingredients for cosmetics. His company gives detailed advice and holds repeated discussions with clients about the regional-specific products involved as well as about the extraction of the cosmetics ingredients, the actual manufacturing, and even packaging design and marketing. In this way, they align with clients in the process to bring the product to fruition.
Kurebe’s decision to start a business with a region is always rooted in reality. “It’s not just about making a line of cosmetics and then it’s over. For the regional industry, if it doesn’t sell there’s no point. Japan’s domestic market (which is overflowing with an abundance of products) is becoming smaller, and it’s simply not the time to wield enormous budgets and aim for major hits. So brands that started in regional areas have to aim for appropriate sales volumes and goals.”
So far, Aldebaran has produced around 30 cosmetics products that are designed around solving the problems of regional areas, and they currently have over 20 projects in progress.
One of those is the organic cosmetics line Rosa Rugosa developed together with the town of Urahoro in Hokkaido, a hamlet of population 4,500. Rosa Rugosa is made from Japanese roses (which are also known as “rosa rugosa”) that are grown in Urahoro farms without the use of fertilizer or pesticides. With many children in Urahoro having to leave the town to continue to senior high school, the town decided to create jobs for young people and revitalize the region they would develop cosmetics that use the symbol of the town, Japanese roses.
After the lineup’s release in 2018, the townspeople of Urahoro themselves visited PR events held in different regions to help in marketing the cosmetics. In 2019, they even built a distillery for the ingredients. In the near future, they plan to set up a factory so that everything from harvesting to manufacturing can all be done within the town.
Aldebaran is also developing and manufacturing the organic cosmetics line Yaetoco that uses oil extracted from citrus fruit peels grown in the Ehime region.
In 2018 Aldebaran’s parent company and organic cosmetics manufacturer, Crecos Inc. participated in the “Karatsu Cosmetic Conception” held in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, a project which brings together cosmetics-related companies. As a part of this, Crecos opened the Karatsu Cosmetic Factory, dubbed “FACTO”, through a 10-year lease from Karatsu City. This is a semi-fabless factory that can also be used by factory-less companies for their own uses. It contains facilities for a wide range of processes, from processing agricultural materials for use as cosmetics ingredients to product planning, development, manufacturing, and marketing.
At FACTO, in addition to cosmetics, Crecos is also partnering with employment-support facilities to help in initiatives for employing disabled people, and the factory has also become a base for shaping sustainable recycling industries that involve the whole region. The latter includes using the natural energy produced by the wind power generators of Karatsu City’s Minatomachi region for electricity.
Additionally, for the extraction and analysis of ingredients, Aldebaran is forming an alliance with the Japan Cosmetic Center, an association which is working to be a hub for the cosmetics industry that connects Japan to the world.
Meanwhile, Aldebaran has also started rolling out popup stores that showcase a collection of the regional cosmetics brands they produce. They’ve set up a permanent area in the “Japan Mastery Collection”, a display within the departure lobby of Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport (though as of April 2020 it’s temporarily closed due to COVID-19).
In addition, along with a partnership with cosmetics reviewing platform @cosme, they’ve teamed up with iStyle Inc., which owns a wide array of e-commerce and retail store businesses in the beauty field, too, as Kurebe eagerly exclaims, “help with our mission to connect regional-made cosmetics with markets”.
This wide-spanning network is what supports Aldebaran’s highly philanthropic businesses that are based on the wish to reinvigorate the hometowns of people who live in regional areas.
Clean beauty, the traceability of cosmetics ingredients, and the circular economies of regional areas are all themes of great interest around the world, particularly in the West. Through concrete initiatives by direct-to-consumer brands in various countries and regions and fan communities that resonate with brand philosophies linked to these themes, the industry is growing. Aldebaran’s methods of sustainable product creation no doubt provide good hints for cosmetics-making in the era of SDGs for other Japanese businesses too.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Lina Ono
