Truth in advertising has never been a strong concept in Japan, but no one flouts it as boldly as the cosmetics industry, which is understandable, since makeup itself is a form of deception. One company's antiwrinkle cream is said to "prevent aging," an obvious impossibility, while the manufacturer of a particular "skin whitening" (bihaku) lotion claims that it "checks the growth of melanin cells," which means, theoretically, that the lotion is messing with the genetic structure of those cells. Even if this were desirable (melanin cells grow for a reason), only a doctor could prescribe such treatment.

Clearly, many ads for "functional" cosmetics tell consumers that their products do things they can't. Purely decorative cosmetics are less of a problem, since they don't need to say anything except that they'll make you more attractive, a claim that is so subjective as to be virtually meaningless.

And lucrative. Japanese women shell out close to 3 trillion yen a year for cosmetics. Major companies like Shiseido, which controls about 40 percent of the market, have gotten to where they are not so much through superior products but through careful manipulation of sales channels and regulations that allow them to charge artificially high prices. High prices are customarily interpreted as representing high quality, a myth that the cosmetics industry has been instrumental in perpetuating. As a matter of fact, cosmetics are enormously cost-effective. In retail terms, 1,000 yen worth of makeup requires on the average 40 yen in material costs. The rest is packaging, advertising, and profit.