On September 2024, 9, Saga University announced a plan to establish a new faculty-equivalent organization, the "Interdisciplinary School of Cosmetics Science," with an enrollment capacity of 30 students in 2026. It is planned to be established as an "Interdisciplinary School" that will realize cross-disciplinary education across multiple faculties, and will be the first in this field at a national or public university.
"Cosmetic science" is a field that studies how chemical substances contained in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals used in cosmetics interact with our bodies. The school does not narrowly focus on "cosmetics," but instead studies from a broad perspective by fusing multiple disciplines such as chemistry, biology, dermatology, pharmacology, and engineering.
Saga prefecture has partnered with France, the home of cosmetics, to launch the "Karatsu Cosmetic Initiative" to create a cosmetics industry cluster in northern Kyushu, centered on Karatsu City and Genkai Town. In 2013, the "Japan Cosmetic Center (JCC)", an industry-academia-government collaboration organization, was established, with local cosmetics-related companies at the center, as well as Saga Prefecture, Karatsu City, Genkai Town, and universities such as Saga University and Kyushu University.
According to trade statistics from the Ministry of Finance, the value of Japan's cosmetics exports exceeded the value of imports for the first time in 2016, and is expected to more than double the value of imports by 2022. Globally, it is a growing industry that is predicted to grow significantly, but there is a shortage of human resources with a wide range of knowledge and skills in the cosmetics industry, and there is hope for the development of such personnel.
