Last week, cosmetics giant Kanebo, along with two subsidiaries, announced it was recalling 54 skincare products that are believed to cause unsightly blotches. The merchandise under scrutiny contains an active whitening ingredient called Rhododenol that the company first started marketing in 2008, and it estimates that some 250,000 women in Japan alone use it on a regular basis. Since 2008, 4.36 million units have been shipped and probably about 450,000 may still be in use, including in foreign countries like Thailand and Taiwan. The Philippines, in fact, reacted to the recall by banning all Kanebo products that contained Rhododenol.

On the surface, the size of the problem sounds formidable, since Kanebo will lose some ¥5 billion on account of the recall. Asahi Shimbun reports that the company has not released sales figures for the disputed line of products, but it is believed Kanebo's annual revenues for skin whitening agents is around ¥190 billion. Consequently, the company is not losing that much, and if one wanted to make a gambling analogy, it obviously pays to market substances that aren't guaranteed in the long run since so much money can be made in the short run. It all depends on what people want and how badly they want it.

Women's cosmetics, and whitening products in particular, are no-lose propositions in Japan. The main market right now is middle aged consumers, who, according to a recent article in Aera, buy almost any anti-aging product that goes on the market. This practice is now called keshohin kurujingu, or "makeup cruising." The article profiles several women, housewives and working women, all in their 40s and 50s, who spend an average of ¥50,000 a month on cosmetics.