August 04, 2025
Shiseido explores scent’s power to deepen human ties
Osaka’s Expo 2025, themed “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” brings together over 150 countries and regions, along with companies and international organizations. While many participants are showcasing cutting-edge technologies and futuristic innovations, Shiseido has taken a refreshingly human approach: inviting visitors to explore the power of beauty, dialogue and empathy.
The company is sponsoring and providing support for “Dialogue Theater – Sign of Life,” one of the signature pavilions at the expo. The pavilion is produced by acclaimed film director Naomi Kawase.
The signature pavilions comprise eight distinctive spaces located at the heart of the expo site, each curated by a different producer. These pavilions offer immersive experiences — blending physical and virtual elements — to encourage visitors to reflect on the meaning of life and reconsider its possibilities.
Kawase’s pavilion is envisioned as a space for dialogue where visitors are invited to engage with evolving, open-ended questions. Addressing global divides — whether rooted in gender, inequality, ethnicity or values — the pavilion serves as a kind of laboratory for exploring how conversation can become a tool for understanding and connection.
Shiseido’s participation in this dedicated thematic pavilion aligns naturally with its pursuit of beauty spanning more than 150 years — not merely as a way to enhance appearance, but as a force that connects people and invites them to face one another. The company has long focused on fostering human relationships through beauty, aiming to realize a sustainable society in which people can truly feel happiness through the power of beauty. This philosophy resonated deeply with Kawase’s vision.
Architecture also plays a quiet but powerful role in the experience. The three pavilion buildings — the foyer, the Dialogue Theater Building and the Meeting House in the Forest — were created by relocating and repurposing two abandoned school buildings from Nara and Kyoto prefectures. The buildings, once filled with the voices of children, have been thoughtfully reconstructed to serve as spaces for reflection and emotional preparation.
Plants nurtured in the original schoolyards were also carefully transplanted, carrying with them the layered memories of Nara and Kyoto. Among them, a symbolic 100-year-old ginkgo tree from Fukuchiyama — once scheduled for removal — now stands tall at the heart of the pavilion. Having watched over generations of children, this tree continues its quiet presence as a guardian of all life, anchoring the space in both memory and renewal.
This atmosphere set the stage for Shiseido’s 10-day experiential program “Shiseido Week,” held within the Dialogue Theater from July 11 to 20. One of its highlights was a participatory experiment conducted in the Dialogue Theater Building that explored how fragrance can foster empathy. During the first four days of “Shiseido Week,” randomly selected visitor was invited to engage in a screen-mediated dialogue with someone they were meeting for the first time, guided by daily-changing beauty-related themes. As they conversed, proprietary Shiseido technologies measured levels of emotional resonance. When mutual empathy was detected, a gentle scent was released into the space.
The initiative set out to explore whether scent can positively influence human connections in an era marked by loneliness and social fragmentation. By merging empirical research with sensory experience, Shiseido aims to prove whether scent can serve as a catalyst for improving social bonds.
This participatory installation formed part of Shiseido’s long-standing sensory science research related to cosmetics, which spans over four decades. It builds on the company’s expertise in decoding how human senses, particularly smell, affect memory, mood and interpersonal interactions. Within the theater, audiences did not simply observe — they became active participants in a living experiment, with their presence subtly shaping the atmosphere through unspoken chemistry.
According to Shuntaro Okazaki, Ph.D., a senior researcher at Shiseido Mirai Technology Institute, this dialogue-based experiment asked participants to complete a specialized psychological questionnaire designed for quantitative analysis, reflecting the project’s emphasis on fundamental research. Among the measures used was a validated scale for assessing rapport — mutual trust and emotional connection — to analyze whether genuine rapport was formed between pairs of participants during their interactions.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent Meeting House in the Forest, another interactive installation called “Beauty Dialogue Letter & Post” invited visitors to write letters sharing moments they experienced at the expo. Each letter included the scent of Shiseido’s signature serum, Ultimune, posted to loved ones around the world. In a time dominated by instant messages, this tactile, aromatic gesture felt surprisingly intimate.
“To my surprise, many visitors were fully immersed in writing their letters,” said Wataru Takekoshi, manager of Shiseido Global Brand Unit. “I honestly wondered if handwritten letters were outdated, but seeing those quiet, focused moments changed my mind.”
The act of writing — contemplating someone important, choosing words with care, and sending a message imbued with scent — became a profound form of nonverbal dialogue. According to Takekoshi, “The concept originated from a campaign Shiseido Canada ran in the 2010s, which encouraged people to share messages of appreciation and beauty through handwritten notes. The emotional response it generated inspired this revival in Osaka.”
Thinking of someone and putting those feelings into words — this simple act quietly awakens our emotions in today’s digital society. Through the invisible mediums of scent and handwritten letters, the connections between people gently come into focus — at once nostalgic, and yet surprisingly fresh.
In another installation inside the Meeting House in the Forest, visitors could explore empathy through scent. Seated face-to-face across a table equipped with sensory research technology, pairs of participants engaged in open conversation while making eye contact. As they spoke, Shiseido’s system analyzed their facial expressions for emotional cues, calculated the degree of empathy and gently released a fragrance into the space when a moment of mutual empathy was detected.
As a dialogue unfolded, the system detected emotional cues from facial expressions and calculated the degree of mutual empathy. When a moment of strong empathy was identified, a subtle fragrance was released into the space. After the session, participants could view a summary showing how many times the fragrance was triggered and the peak level of empathy that was achieved.
This installation was designed to offer a similar experience to those who did not participate directly in the demonstration experiment held in the Dialogue Theater Building.
“We often believe we understand each other, but that belief can be misleading,” said Okazaki. “By bringing those emotions into awareness and making them visible, we may be able to improve the quality of our relationships.”
The implications of such work extend beyond the Osaka expo. According to Okazaki, “These technologies and ideas could offer new ways to address generational and digital divides, particularly between younger, screen-native generations and older adults less comfortable with technology.” In a future increasingly mediated by AI and algorithms, the ability to measure and nurture authentic human connections may become a critical social asset.
Shiseido’s approach offers a quiet counterpoint to the dominant narratives of progress. Rather than competing to showcase the fastest, smartest or most efficient innovations, the company reminds us that the future also depends on qualities that can’t be quantified: empathy, reflection and sensory awareness.
Through scent, letters and dialogue, the pavilion gently reminds us that progress is not only about innovation, but also about preserving our capacity to feel, connect, and understand. Looking ahead, it will be worth watching how the research insights gained through the Osaka expo help shape the society of tomorrow.
