World News | Japanese Businessmen Brighten Makeup Industry Amid Pandemic

Tokyo, Apr 20 (AP) The coronavirus pandemic has pushed many companies in Japan to the sting of monetary destroy, however Takumi Tezuka, who owns a make-up and hair salon for males in Tokyo, has seen his buyer base increase. Japanese businessmen of their 40s, 50s and 60s who had little curiosity in cosmetics earlier than the pandemic are more and more visiting Tezuka’s salon, Ikemen-Works, hoping for a greater look in on-line conferences. A big private care firm, Shiseido, says one in every of its male make-up strains has seen double-digit development through the pandemic. Company officers give an analogous cause: Men, confronted with the sight of their faces repeatedly throughout on-line conferences, need to enhance what they see. “Before, most of our prospects had been males of their teenagers and 20s, however due to distant work we now have extra businessmen,” mentioned Tezuka. Unlike many youthful males, who need a drastic makeover, older businessmen need to present a barely higher model of themselves through the use of make-up, he mentioned. “Men of their 40s, 50s, and 60s come to our salon as a result of they really feel they need to put on make-up,” he mentioned. Tezuka mentioned that is as a result of businessmen who do business from home have extra alternatives to see their faces throughout on-line conferences and have thus began to care extra about their appears. The males’s magnificence trade has been increasing in Japan. According to analysis firm Fuji Keizai Group, the boys’s beauty market grew from about 600 billion yen ($5.5 billion) to an estimated 623 billion yen ($5.7 billion) from 2018 to 2019. Tezuka mentioned older businessmen are inclined to spend extra money and go to extra repeatedly than these of their 20s and 30s. One buyer, Yoshihiro Kamichi, 44, just lately got here to Tezuka’s salon to purchase make-up for the primary time. Kamichi selected make-up for his eyelids and had basis utilized to his face. A make-up artist rigorously trimmed his eyebrows and contoured his nostril and face with brown shadow energy. “Who is that this particular person? I used to be stunned at how totally different I look,” Kamichi mentioned whereas himself within the mirror. Shiseido, one of many world’s oldest cosmetics firms, launched free on-line make-up filters final month that permit male customers seem like they’re sporting males’s magnificence merchandise similar to blemish balms and basis. After Shiseido launched make-up filters for girls for on-line conferences like Zoom final 12 months, feedback from businessmen flooded in to its social media accounts requesting filters for males. Uno, Shiseido’s males’s care model, is now increasing its goal age for cosmetics from males of their early 20s to males of their 40s. “I feel the coronavirus has created a sure situation that urges businessmen to be extra conscious of their pores and skin situation,” mentioned Uno’s assistant branding supervisor, Yoshiyuki Matsuo. “We have seen double-digit development even amid the pandemic.” Matsuo would not present extra particulars about Uno’s development. To make cosmetics accessible to males, Japanese cosmetics retailer @Cosme Tokyo created a complete part devoted to male and unisex make-up objects final 12 months at their newly opened store in entrance of Harajuku Station, a classy Tokyo space. One current buyer, Kenta Yamashita, 24, a hairdresser, has been utilizing cosmetics day by day. “There are males who can’t purchase beauty merchandise as a result of it is laborious for them to casually drop in. I feel it is good we now have this part,” Yamashita mentioned. “But I want they’d make the part greater in order that males can extra casually drop in.” (AP)(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff could not have modified or edited the content material physique)