Over the moon: under its famous crescent moon logo, Kao Corporation, the biggest consumer household goods manufacturer in Japan, has been busily stepping up its premium C&T brand image in the West while concentrating increasingly on the personal care market in Japan

The history of Kao Corporation stretches back almost 120 years to the opening of the Nagase store in Tokyo through Kao's founder Tomiro Nagase in 1887 and the launch of the first high quality domestic facial soap in Japan in 1890 Since then the company has branched on the outside to become Japan's largest household proceedss manufacturer, dividing its business into three sections The first segment is Kao's consumer usefuls business which includes personal care, fabric and domicile care, functional foods such as verdant tea, feminine and baby care and professional use harvests such as dry-cleaning and victuals service products. The second