The Beauty & Research Center is the first belonging to a Japanese company to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Kao has opened a new research centre in Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, where researchers will analyse neural processes in relation to beauty.
The Beauty Research & Innvoation Center located at the Odawara Complex follows earlier construction on the same site. It brings the total amount of investment since last year to ¥13bn.
The Odawara Complex will have the largest range of research functions of any cosmetics R&D site in Asia.
The new centre will be the first R&D facility of Japanese ownership to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technology. The technology allows researchers to analyse neural processes such as emotion and decision-making.
Sharing the same grounds as the new centre, Kao has also built an interactive laboratory called Cocolab, which allows people to see and experience ‘kansei’ values – ones that are difficult to express in language, such as beauty and emotion.
