Menard’s 3D cultured epidermis models clinch a top spot at Japan BeautyTech Awards 2021
On March 5 this year, istyle, Inc. announced the first and second places as well as the Special Awards for the second Japan BeautyTech Awards at a ceremony held at CIC Tokyo within Toranomon Hills, Tokyo.
In his opening address, istyle’s President and CEO Tetsuro Yoshimatsu spoke about the diverse range of applications they had received from fields other than beauty such as health care and fashion. Indeed, overall applications this year surpassed the previous year, totaling 65.
The judging panel for the Japan BeautyTech Awards 2021 consisted of the following five individuals:
Chief Juror
● Takaaki Umezawa (Chairman of A.T. Kearney Japan and CIC Japan)
Judging Panel
● Naohiro Shichijo (Professor at Hitotsubashi University’s School of Business Administration)
● Chika Tsukiji (Manager of the PR team at Stripe International)
● Kaname Murakami (Editor-in-chief of WWDJAPAN.com)
● Miyako Yoshizawa (Senior Associate at Coral Capital)
Leading up to the announcement of the winning companies and projects, Chief Juror Umezawa reflected on the selection process. He explained how they ended up selecting two companies for the Special Award, along with the originally planned first and second place awards, as they “came across so many wonderful technologies and it was very much a fierce battle in a good sense of the word.”
First Place
Nippon Menard Cosmetic Co., Ltd.
Development of new skin models that replicates sensitivity to stimulus
In the top spot was Menard’s technology for creating three-dimensional cultured epidermises (i.e. artificial skin models) that make use of cutting-edge stem cell and genome editing techniques.
The skin has barrier functions that protect it from dryness and external stimuli and, with these functions being an important factor in affecting the condition of the skin, they are a key to more accurate skin research and cosmetics assessment. However, during their research and development, Menard found that the usual 3D cultured epidermis models that had been used so far made it difficult to stably reproduce particular skin conditions, such as sensitive skin and skin with strong or weak barrier functions.
This problem was resolved by using artificial skin models that Menard developed. By fusing their stem cell technology with the latest in genome editing techniques to edit filaggrin genes that are related to skin barrier functions at the genome level, they could manufacture artificial skin models where the barrier function deteriorated from the stem cell stage. In addition, by combining normal stem cells with genome-edited stem cells, they were also successful in reproducing barrier functions at various stages. These models are anticipated to help replicate rough skin and sensitive skin and be used as models for evaluating hypoallergenic substances that were previously difficult to detect.
In attendance at the award ceremony was Seiji Hasegawa, chief of the Research Technologies Division at Menard’s General Research Laboratory. Hasegawa remarked that the success of their development was driven by the objective to create a skin model closer in likeness to human beings and the usage of the stem cell cultured techniques that Menard had been cultivating since 2003. So far Menard has made use of their stem cell technology to develop “artificial skin models” that recreate in vitro the problems and phenomena that occur in a variety of different skin types. Hasegawa said that in the future he wished to make use of this for products and beauty services that are tailored to the differences in people’s skin conditions and qualities.
Touching on the reasons for bestowing the first prize to Menard, Chief Juror Umezawa mentioned that the technology has great significance for the beauty industry and at the same time is likely to be of great use in the medical field in the future.
Second Place
Truly Inc.
Truly Chat Consultation for Corporate Clients
Truly, which was founded in June 2020, has built up an online service that, along with communicating medically correct information regarding menopause to women through their owned media, also allows users to do a self-health check and consult a team of female doctors through online chat. Their “Truly Chat Consultation for Business” has been designed as a pay-by-the-month package for corporations that allows them to introduce this service as a part of their employee welfare program.
The brand was praised for the way it avoids having female employees pay to receive the service. The service allows them to get consultation anonymously about their menopause-related issues, which usually can come with high psychological barriers. By allowing users to talk to a doctor over chat whenever and wherever they want without being concerned about their company, the service contributes to making the workplace easier for women to work in.
In explaining what led to the launch of the service, Truly CEO Mimako Ninomiya touched on how half of the women working in Japan today are over 50 and many tend to hesitate to aim for career advancement or join the ranks of management due to health concerns, including menopausal symptoms. This, she said, is one reason why there isn’t an increase in women managers in Japan. “I want this to help improve understanding of menopause for both women and men in order to get society to become friendlier towards working people,” Ninomiya mentioned.
The panel of judges responded empathically to how the company is addressing the difficult topic of menopause and involving companies about it. The fact they could turn a service that could solve an issue held by both corporations and users into a business in such a short time was also praised highly.
Special Award
Perfect Corp.
Services providing beauty industry solutions through AR (augmented reality) and AI (artificial intelligence)
Chief Juror Umezawa praised Perfect Corp as a candidate that while winning first place last time, “presented an even more powered-up solution this time around. We decided to award them with the Special Award as a kind of ‘Hall of Fame’ induction.” He pointed out how the company’s technology was a catalyst for the digital transformation of the beauty industry.
Perfect is currently focusing on the creation and maintenance of consumer engagement through all their touchpoints, and through their AR and AI technologies they’re rolling out beauty SaaS services in a variety of different areas.
This specifically includes “AR/AI virtual makeup”, “AI skin check”, the online counseling service “BA 1 on 1” where users can receive counseling from beauty advisor and also have virtual makeup applied to their faces, “AR Live Cast for Web & Mobile App” that comes with a feature that allows users to try-on makeup virtually during live video streams, and “AI Smart Shade Finder” that recommends foundation colors suitable for users’ skin tones.
Along with maintaining partnerships with over 300 beauty brands around the world, Perfect is also collaborating with such platforms as YouTube, Snapchat, and Shopify. Their digital tools are coming to be called the infrastructure for customer service and purchasing in the beauty field.
President of Perfect Japan Yorinobu (Rob) Isozaki mentioned however that “AR/AI is a rapidly changing industry and new ideas are continuously appearing.” In his acceptance speech, he expressed his unwavering aspirations to head to the top, saying that “we’re always thinking about how to advance what we currently have to meet the demands of users.”
Special Award
Orbis Inc.
Introducing unmanned automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) to automate their e-commerce shipping lines
Orbis has been working on automating its distribution lines to meet its growing needs in recent years. They reformed the shipping line of their East Japan Distribution Center, the main base of their e-commerce shipping work, and installed 330 small AGVs (automatic guided vehicles) to automate their processes — from the collection of products to the work of sorting by the district that used to be done by hand. It’s a cyclic system where each AGV is assigned a single order and, having received instructions from an AI-driven control system, drives along the most optimal route from product collection through to inspection and the packing area.
Compared to the old line, the shipping capabilities have now increased 1.3-fold, the staff required for the work have been reduced by 27%, the cost of a single order has been cut by 18%, and the electricity consumed has been reduced by 40%.
In the second round of panel presentation, Orbis streamed live from the above-mentioned distribution center and there were even remarks from judges of how “cute” the AGV robots were as they briskly went about their work with their facial-like frontal designs. Staff and robots appeared to work in harmony, and high praise was given to the human touch imbued in the technology.
Receiving the award, Hiroyuki Ogawa, head of SCM Promotion in the QCD Supervisory Department at Orbis, said that the project succeeded thanks to everyone on the team sharing a future-oriented mindset and focusing on the potential of what could be done.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Ayako Sogo
Photo credit: Mika Nakayama
