Category Archives: Shiseido

Hair Loss Japan, Fuji Maru Kagurazaka, Shiseido

Hair Loss Cure Japan: Fuji Maru Kagurazaka

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Update: Please go to step 1 listed further below once this issue is resolved:

Based on current hair loss research trends, The US and Japan are the countries that are the most likely to come out with a hair loss cure. This lengthy post focuses on Japan. Please read through it in its entirety, since I cover the latest news from Shiseido (Japan) at the bottom.

Also, after reading ALL of this post’s content, if you appreciate Tokyo based Mr. Fuji Maru Kagurazaka (FMK) as much as I do, please do the following:

  1. Go to Japan’s top hair loss blogs and websites ranking page.
  2. Translate into English if needed via right clicking on your browser and selecting the translate option (or you might get a pop-up asking you as such).
  3. Please vote for him. As of today, Mr. Kagurazaka is ranked number 7. His entry is titled “Hair Loss Cure Japan” — see image further below. The other sites ranked above him are nowhere near as useful to our cause as is his site.
  4. I am not exactly sure how the voting works, but I asked Mr. Kagurazaka and he stated the following (although he does not care too much about his ranking): “There are two kinds of voting methods. When you click on the banner installed in the article, it is a weekly IN point. Clicking on the ranking page (I THINK HE MEANS THE LINK ITSELF) will result in a weekly OUT point. Fuji Maru Kagurazaka is the administrator’s name, I think that you can introduce. Readers can vote with just clicks without registration or installation.” Previously, he also replied to me that: “Clicking on the ranking banner at the top of the article, IN point 10 UP, clicking my blog on the ranking page, OUT point 10 UP, will.”

The image below is off poor quality because of my shrinking it, but it should still be obvious what I mean. If you can figure out a more simpler way in which the voting works, please post about it in the comments. Do not vote for someone else by mistake!

Hair Loss Japan

Fuji Maru Kagurazaka — Introduction

For the past  two years, a Japanese person (or anime or manga character) by the name of Fuji Maru Kagurazaka has been prolifically Tweeting and blogging about hair loss news and developments. Half of his blog articles and posts are summaries of news that he gets from other blogs such as this one. However, it is the other half of his posts where he truly shines in his originality.

I find his blog to be very unbiased. Moreover, he does not even seem to have any major regular advertisers and might be doing all this work for little to no compensation. One of the posts I read about FMK suggests that he has been involved in the online hair loss sector since the early 2000s, although I can’t find this information anymore.

Fuji Maru Kagurazaka
Mr. Fuji Maru Kagurazaka

Mr. Kagurazaka has a knack for finding unique information, especially in relation to developments in Japan. He also has very good coverage of work from other Asian countries such as South Korea and Taiwan. Unfortunately, his blog does not seem to load half the time when accessed from the US, so be patient. Some of his posts can also get lengthy and confusing after translation into English, but your patience will be rewarded.

You can also read all of Mr. FMK’s past comments on HLT. This should be done after you have had a few drinks for the most enjoyment. FMK also had an older hair related site on Geocities, prior to the latter’s closure.

Fuji Maru Kagurazaka’s Recent Highlights

Among Mr. Kagurazaka’s blog’s very unique news items and revelations from just this past one month include:

    • Both Dr. Takashi Tsuji and Shiseido are presenting at the 23rd Annual Meeting of Japan Society of Clinical Hair Restoration (November 24-25 2018). This will be huge.
    • Mr. FMK  discovered a new company from Taiwan called Energis Biomedical that is working on a hair loss treatment product called ENERGI-F701. They recently started Phase 2 clinical trials. Their 2017 youtube video suggests that the trials will occur in the US and Taiwan.
    • Mr. FMK has written a recent post about Rohto Pharmaceutical (Japan) presenting its latest findings regarding adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) plus minoxidil (and their synergistic effect on hair growth and gene expression).

Mr. Kagurazaka also messages me on Twitter every now and again and provides some interesting views and information. For example, a while back he sent me an image of Zagallo (generic Japanese Dutasteride), which was approved to treat hair loss in Japan.

Zagallo -- Japanese Dutasteride

Cutting Edge Hair Loss Research in Japan

Two of the companies that are among the most likely in the world to come out with a hair loss cure are based in Japan. See my post on RIKEN/Dr. Tsuji and Shiseido’s hair research centers being located right next to each other in Kobe.

In years past, there was a Japanese commentator on this blog by the name of “nosyu” who provided us with important updates about hair loss news from Japan. However, he disappeared several years ago and I now rely on Mr. Fuji Maru Kagurazaka for a lot of my Japanese news.

Shiseido in Bio Japan 2018

Talking about Japan, it seems like there was an important conference over there these past two days called “BioJapan 2018”.

Shiseido is presenting there per something that I found online:

Shiseido at Bio Japan 2018

 

Also of significance, Shiseido’s partner Replicel (Canada) made this useful comment on Twitter a few days ago.

Update: Replicel’s latest press release. Key Quote:

“With sufficiently positive data from the RCH-01 clinical study in Japan, Shiseido may be in a position to launch the product in Japan for the treatment of patients with androgenic alopecia.”

Some other interesting news from Shiseido:

— Shiseido is now embracing English as its in-house workplace language. A majority of the company’s sales occur outside of Japan.

— Shiseido is tackling neck wrinkles with Retinol. A number of readers use Retinol (Vitamin A1) in combination with Minoxidil for better scalp absorption and hair growth results. Note that there are significant possible side effects that can occur from using Retinol regularly.

Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster, Kyocera, Organ Technologies, RCH-01, Replicel, RIKEN, Shiseido, Takashi Tsuji

So its Shiseido/Replicel versus RIKEN/Tsuji in Kobe

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Update: And in other important news from Japan from this week:

— Dr. Tsuji published a new paper several days ago.

— Pokemon Go was finally launched in Japan, its spiritual homeland.

Without any doubt, there has never been a better year than this one in the hair loss research world. The last four months have been especially fruitful, and I am not even considering a number of newer entrants in the field (just because most seem suspicious or are likely to produce best case results that will be akin to those from Rogaine). Key noteworthy recent developments:

  • First, in April, Follica (which had been left for dead by many due to its numerous conflicting signals since inception in 2006) surprised us and is clearly alive and aims to release its product in 2018 in a best case scenario. The company’s majority owner PureTech stated in a summary document that “skin disruption alone was safe and generates new follicles as well as new hair“.
  • Thereafter, in June, Aclaris Therapeutics’ CEO Mr. Neal Walker clearly stated at three difference investor presentation that “topical covalently bound highly selective JAK3 inhibitors” work in treating androgenetic alopecia and not just in treating alopecia areata. Alcaris will be conducting trials on this use of JAK inhibitors in 2017.
  • Also in June, Histogen made a surprising announcement that it would start treating patients in Mexico in 2018. Like Follica, many people had left Histogen for dead due to the fact that the company has been involved in hair loss research for a similarly lengthy period of time with mixed signals in terms of efficacy, clinical trial and product release dates.
  • Then, in July came perhaps the most exciting news ever in the hair loss cure research world. RIKEN/Dr. Takashi Tsuji, Kyocera and Organ Technologies have formed a partnership that aims to commercially release a product in 2020 that will essentially represent a cure for hair loss. 2020 is clearly a best case scenario assuming no major hiccups along the way. Mr. Tsuji is a world renowned and extremely well respected and modest scientist; RIKEN has access to Japanese government funds and to numerous leading scientists in the world of regenerative medicine; Kyocera is a private sector multinational behemoth with pre-existing hardware side technology and expertise that will likely be of much use to Dr. Tsuji.
  • And finally, today the Shiseido/Replicel team finally announced the commencement of delayed clinical trials in Japan (see bottom part of this post).

RIKEN and Dr. Tsuji are conducting their research at the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster (KBIC) in Japan in RIKEN’s Integrated Innovation Building.

RIKEN Integrated Innovation Building
RIKEN Integrated Innovation Building.

Shiseido/Replicel Joins Kyocera/RIKEN/ Tsuji at the KBIC

Today, in yet one more major positive development this year, it was announced that the Shiseido/Replicel team has finally started its delayed 60-person (men and women included) Japanese clinical trials for its autologous cell therapy based RCH-01 product.

Riken Kobe Business Center
Riken Kobe Business Center.

While the study will be conducted at two hospitals in Tokyo, the injected product(s) will be manufactured by Shiseido at their SPEC (Cell-Processing and Expansion Center) in KBIC. I discussed this facility in a post in 2014. It is located in the Business Support Center for Biomedical Research Activities (BMA) building in KBIC.

So Shiseido and RIKEN’s respective research and development work will be conducted at buildings within a mile of each other!! 

I arrived at this conclusion after analyzing this map (both buildings are on the right side of the railroad).

While doing research on KBIC, I found that it is located on Port Island in the city of Kobe, and Port Island is an artificially constructed island. Would be quite something if humans end up creating new replacement hair follicles on a man-made island.