Japanese show seeks new global trends

Red, blue, and yellow flowers were blooming, colouring the beautiful season in Japan, and during the exhibition days the weather was warm and sunny. The exhibition, which was held in Exhibition Halls A-D of Pacifico Yokohama, was a success with a total of 14,288 participants over the three days. This figure is the largest in the past five exhibitions exceeding the previous year’s record of 12,743 people. When the first exhibition was held 10 years ago, I wondered whether the three-day exhibition on cosmetic materials would attract enough people, but it has been incredibly successful. Among the exhibitors, there were 17 foreign companies from 7 countries, namely, Korea, China, Taiwan, France, US, Australia and UK. Many overseas visitors seemed to be from Asia including Korea and China.

Exhibitor Technology Forum

On the theme of ‘Next step for cosmetic ingredients & technology – worldwide new trend’, 107 sessions were given by 56 companies in the four halls. There were four overseas sessions with language interpretation: namely, ‘Increase cell longevity by correcting genomic errors’ by Lipotec, ‘Maximising performance with multifunctional ingredients’ by Inolex Chemical Company, ‘Adult stem cells in the skin and the benefit of maintaining the stemness potential’ by IPS Japan and ‘Dermatopontin plays an essential role in secretion and organisation of dermal extracellular matrix in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies’ by IPS Japan. The forum was held on the same floor as the exhibitions and was easy to attend. The seating capacity of each meeting place was 150 people, and there was a changeover after each session. There were popular sessions with standing audience as well as not so popular ones. Some sessions were very academic, but those that appealed to the senses of the audiences also attracted people. Because most participants were not researchers, stories that worked on their emotions may have been most appealing.