Just a short hour's drive from Yoshino, we found the company we were looking for in Nara City, with Mount Wakakusa in the distance. Since its founding in 1993, Nara-based cosmetics company Crecos has pioneered organic cosmetics, using traditional Japanese plant-based ingredients like rice bran and loofah. They've launched the QUON series, made with Nara's famous Yamato tea, and are involved in numerous social contribution activities. What are Crecos's goals? We spoke with CEO Tatsuo Kurebe, who leads these efforts. Since its inception, Crecos has engaged in a variety of volunteer activities, including makeup volunteers and a well-digging fund. What is the purpose of these activities? Founder Keiko Kurebe has always been passionate about social causes, and has always strived to contribute to society as a company. The Forest of Life Club, launched in 2003, wanted to do something about the problem of abandoned forests in Yoshino's Totsukawa and Tenkawa villages. Some expressed the desire to own a mountain they could protect themselves, but then they thought, "Wait a minute, is that sustainable?" They reconsidered and decided to support those who protect forests as a company, which is how the club evolved into what it is today.

--So this was a turning point in contributing to society through a sustainable scheme. Did your thinking change from that point on?

We wondered whether we could combine social activities with commercial activities. For example, we use handmade washi paper packaging for our cosmetics. We cut down trees ourselves and brought the thinned wood to a welfare support facility in Nara, where they make handmade washi paper.

We also installed a distillation system at the welfare support facility in Niigata, where they are responsible for processing the aroma raw materials used to distill leaves and flowers for our cosmetics. By entrusting them with the intermediate and final processing of our commercial activities, we are able to secure employment for them and pay them wages that are approximately three times the minimum wage.

--You have close ties with agriculture, as you have contracted farmers all over the country who produce ingredients for your cosmetics.

In 1997, you launched a lotion called "Pure Loofah Essence," and in 2000, you began using organic, pesticide-free loofah extract from Kumamoto. Your connections with farmers have also expanded, and in Nara, you blended it with fermented rice bran extract from Yagi Sake Brewery, signed an in-house contract with a bee farm in Ikoma City, and expanded your relationships beyond Nara to include organic, pesticide-free soybean farmers in Shizuoka. In particular, your recent contract with Kenichi Natural Farm, a Yamato tea farm, which you signed in 2010, was a major factor in leading to the subsequent "QUON" brand.



-- The QUON Project is currently a major pillar of your company.

It is an attempt to contribute to society through your main business, cosmetics products. We think about it from the perspectives of agriculture, forestry, and welfare. For example, QUON uses Yamato tea grown without pesticides and using natural farming methods, and tea farmers would normally have their off-season from November to April. However, we ask them to harvest not only the tea leaves but also the fruits and flowers, so they can work during times that would previously have been off-season.が、社会福祉協議会。 English:



--So rather than volunteering, you cooperate with each other in the process of selling and making cosmetics. It seems that agriculture and cosmetics have a surprising affinity.

Yes, just like food, they are absorbed through the skin. Some products look edible at first glance, such as a face pack made with organic cacao carefully selected by chocolatier Kazuo Noguchi.

--So linking this to corporate profits is a sustainable and circular activity.

Yes. Rather than keeping it to ourselves, we hope to share and spread the word. By the way, the "quon" in the QUON project means "eternity." It is a Buddhist term that expresses something continuing forever.

--It certainly conveys the message of "being sustainable."

[Profile]
Kurebe Tatsuo, CEO of Crecos Inc.
He began working at Crecos with his mother, the company's founder, while he was still a university student. He now travels all over the country as the person responsible for promoting the QUON project.