Japan's Lightweight Sunscreens Tap Skincare Craze

When YouTuber Hannah Price set out to compare Japanese and Australian sunscreen, she was not expecting her deep dive into the subject to rack up over two million views.

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TOKYO —

The huge number of people poring over Ms. Price's video shows the growing interest in skincare products from Japan.

It includes sun protection, increasingly recognized as a daily essential by influencers who want to shield their skin from aging and enthuse about the lightweight texture of Japanese brands.

Companies that have perfected their secret formulas want to capitalize on booming demand, including by building factories overseas and selling to Japan's record influx of foreign tourists.

Ms. Price, 32, fell into a "year-long rabbit hole" while making her video, learning about everything from SPF science to cultural attitudes to sun exposure.

"I always loved Japanese sunscreen since I first moved to Japan in 2012," she told AFP at her studio in Tokyo.

"I remember trying it for the first time and thinking, 'this is so much better than anything I tried in Australia,' her home country where sun cream felt "thick, sticky, greasy."

"I thought that the video would be popular... but I wasn't expecting it to reach as far" as it did, Ms. Price said.

The habit of regular sunscreen use is spreading, especially among younger generations, said Mr. Takuya Wada, who works in marketing for Japanese chemical and cosmetics firm Kao.