Japan's Saga University to launch cosmetics faculty

The faculty is designed to nurture experts in manufacturing and developing cosmetics as well as assessing their quality and safety. It will accept 30 students.

The initiative comes as the university cooperates with the prefectural government of Saga, southwestern Japan, to promote the local cosmetics industry.

The prefecture plans to invite cosmetics companies to Karatsu and nearby areas to identify potential cosmetics materials and enhance cosmetics exports to Asia.

The university opened a course for cosmetics in 2021, where Yoshihiro Tokudome, a specialist in cosmetic and skin science, teaches.

It concluded an agreement for cooperation with the prefectural government in May 2025.

The prefecture pins high hopes on the new faculty.

"We hope this will attract corporate research and development operations to greatly contribute to the promotion of the cosmetics industry," a prefectural official said.

At the faculty, 34 teachers, including Tokudome, will give lectures, and students will study a wide variety of topics related to cosmetics, including biochemistry, medicine, package designing and marketing.

Students will intern at local cosmetics firms.

The university has received more than 100 inquiries about admission to the faculty and joint research there since opening a website for it in August.

More than 560 people applied for two days of an open campus event at the faculty that month, though it was limited to 30 people.

Most of the applicants were from Saga and nearby prefectures, while some were from as far as Tokyo and Osaka.

Graduates from the faculty are expected to join cosmetics makers and related firms as well as attend graduate schools.

"To produce cosmetics means to create culture," Tokudome said, "I hope that students who are interested in various things will join the faculty and hone their sensibilities."