Research and Development The Japan Beauty Institute of Science and Technology (JBIST), the driver of I-ne technology
A new organization that opens up a new frontier: asset-lite R&D
Beauty is the child of art and science
Our marketing prowess has always been central in our history of business growth.
Central to our marketing is innovation of meaning.
We listen to consumers, identify their aesthetic values, and incorporate their values into a product that will be meaningful to them.
Beauty is not just visual.
It is the pleasant texture of your skin.
It is the soothing feel of running your fingers through your hair.
It is a little sensation that makes you like yourself a little more.
All these things create beauty.
An encounter with beauty will always have some underlying material reality—a physical structure, texture, or aromatic compound.
Innovation of meaning must therefore be combined with innovation in materials to deliver innovation in beauty.
Art–science. Marketing–R&D. Today–tomorrow. It is never one or the other.
We keep continuity between the two in each pair, swinging back and forth between them like a pendulum.
Never shying away from trade-off decisions, we work in lockstep with the marketing team, giving us the organizational agility to react and respond to the subtlest signs of change.
By keeping R&D relevant to market realities, we ensure that the outcome of our research will have commercial potential. But this outcome will be more than just a product. It is to deliver beauty to someone and make a positive difference in that person’s life.
Many lack confidence. Many experience a hidden burden of loneliness. Many feel uncared for. Beauty empowers people to start taking small steps to tackle these modern-day problems.
Beautiful hair will stir up the courage to venture out.
Beautiful skin will stimulate desire for social interaction.
Making yourself beautiful will lead to a new relationship.
The new relationship will, in turn, lead to another new relationship.
This positive sequence is what we want to support, and we call it the Chain of Happiness.
We believe that beauty heals.
We believe that beauty gives hope.
We believe that beauty creates new relationships.
The Value-Creation Lab will continue to lead the way in unlocking the science of beauty and its socially transformative power.
The Japan Beauty Institute of Science and Technology (JBIST)
About JBIST
A new R&D model that embraces market partnership
The Value-Creation Lab, established in 2024, takes an asset-lite approach (a flexible approach that makes the most of external partners’ assets). Challenging R&D norms, we co-create new market value in partnership with consumers and also with OEMs, suppliers of raw materials, and external partners.
Creating something meaningful through the fusion of marketing and technology
I-ne has always used its marketing prowess to glean insights from consumers, leading to one hit product after the next. The Value-Creation Lab takes this approach further by blending it organically with technology to produce an outcome that holds meaning for consumers and potential for stakeholders.
Quick and flexible in creating the value people want
Our purpose is not to pursue technological advancement for its own sake. We listen to feedback from consumers and consider the alternative perspectives held by engineers in OEMs and materials manufacturers and by academic researchers. With this melting pot of ideas, we can be quick and flexible in adapting to a volatile market landscape.
Through this cycle, we will continue to deliver value that is truly relevant.
Breaking new ground, offering new options
Our mission is to venture into areas of innovation that large enterprises seldom reach and to use the quick-wittedness of a startup to offer options that never existed in the market previously.
This mission goes beyond developing a product—it involves challenging the very nature of the relationship between society and the market.
In this quest, we work alongside partners to co-create something of value for tomorrow’s world.
This value-creating, market-oriented approach marks the future of R&D, a future that consumers will choose and that we are forging together with stakeholders.
Market-Generating R&D
JBIST’s mission
Boost short-term growth drivers
・Build internal technology infrastructure to enable an asset-lite approach, collaborating with partners to create the optimum in cosmetics
・Explore new materials and technologies to further differentiate I-ne brands
・Build a better infrastructure for cosmetics development (development process, quality and texture evaluation, PR, cosmetic compliance) to achieve product excellence
Combining existing technology to create immediate and medium-term innovation
・Use partnerships with academia to discover untapped technological possibilities and dormant intellectual property, creating innovation in the immediate and medium term
・Use strategic partnerships with stakeholders to create new haircare and skincare formulations
The JBIST Lab
The JBIST has an inhouse lab in the Shin-Kiba area of Tokyo. Having an inhouse lab speeds up the processes from raw material selection to designing and testing the formulation, meaning that new value is created sooner.
Where the JBIST lab is located
214 Mitsui Linklab Shin-Kiba 3, 2-2-10 Shin-Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 136-0082
How to get to the lab
The lab is a six-minute walk from Shin-Kiba Station, which can be accessed on the Yurakucho Line of the Tokyo Metro, the Rinkai Line, or the JR Keiyo Line.