Diffar: Crafted in Japan, from the Foot of Mount Fuji to the World

“The idea behind the coined word ‘Diffar’ comes from how the same thing can make a different impression depending on the day and on how you approach it.”

— Makoto Arii, founder of Diffar

Essential Information

Brand name: Diffar
Founded and launched: October 2024, launched in Paris
Founder: Makoto Arii
Production and development base: Komons Fragrance Lab., Minami-Alps City, Yamanashi Prefecture, in the Southern Alps at the foot of Mount Fuji
Official websites: https://diffar.jp (Japanese) / https://diffar.net (English)

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

Childhood in Minami-Alps and an Awakening to Scent

Makoto Arii was born and raised in Minami-Alps City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Agriculture flourishes in this region between Mount Fuji and the Southern Alps. As a child, Arii breathed in the scent of ripe fruit freshly handed to him by farmers as something entirely ordinary.

But when he moved to Tokyo to attend university and first picked up plastic-wrapped fruit in a supermarket, he was shocked by its “absence of scent.”

“Growing up in an agricultural area of Minami-Alps City, I was always smelling fully ripened fruit that had just been handed to me directly by farmers. When I moved to Tokyo as a university student, I bought plastic-wrapped fruit at a supermarket for the first time and was shocked by its lack of scent. That was when I realized how powerfully fragrance affects the human mind and body.”

— Makoto Arii

This experience became the formative inspiration behind the fragrance-centered brands he would later create.

From International Consulting to Making Things

After completing graduate school, Arii joined a foreign-owned consulting company, where he supported Japanese companies expanding overseas and developed web-marketing strategies. Then one day, his older brother, an engineer, invited him to build a laser cutting machine together. Almost forcibly drawn in, he joined the manufacturing venture.

“He told me, ‘I’ve made something interesting, but I don’t know how to sell it, so help me out,’ and I was more or less dragged into it. Fortunately, within a year we were selling in twenty countries. But once the company was running reasonably well, he said, ‘We’re fine now,’ and my services were no longer required after just a year! [laughs]”

— Makoto Arii

The experience revealed to Arii the appeal of making tangible things, something very different from consulting’s strategies aimed at users he could not see.

Moving Toward Fragrance: The Birth of Komons

With a new desire to make things, Arii first turned his attention to his wife’s struggle with irritated hands caused by dishwashing detergent. Even after ordering commercially available products from Japan and overseas, he felt that “even the natural ones don’t smell very good.” He decided to create Komons, a home-care brand committed to natural fragrances, under the concept of “turning everyday housework into pleasant moments.” But outsourcing the fragrance development to fragrance companies produced only samples far removed from what he imagined.

“I decided there was nothing for it but to do it myself. After nearly two years of research, I created Komons.”

— Makoto Arii

Between founding the company in 2017 and launching Komons roughly two years later, Arii stayed at home, continuing to teach himself perfumery. Thus began his career as an unusual kind of entrepreneur: one who was also his own perfumer.

The Turning Point Toward Diffar: Scent Memories and Travel

As Komons found its footing, Arii’s exploration of making things deepened. Scientific knowledge that smell acts directly on the limbic system, which governs human emotion, combined with his own childhood experience of “scents specific to their place of origin.” Together, these inspired him to create products more specifically devoted to fragrance.

Arii traveled throughout Japan in search of materials for Diffar, thoroughly investigating the distinctive scents of different growing regions. Hinoki cypress from the Yoshino mountains, hiba from Aomori, yuzu from Shimanto in Kochi, and sansho pepper from Wakayama: by sourcing them directly from their places of origin and combining them with materials from around the world, he sought to embody the philosophy of “Crafted in Japan.”

“Ylang-ylang extracted during the first fifteen minutes of distillation has a surprisingly fresh scent, completely different from its usual heavy, sweet fragrance.”

— Makoto Arii

This attention to detail grew out of a rigorously methodical approach grounded in Arii’s scientific background studying natural phenomena such as tsunamis and glaciers.

In October 2024, Diffar launched internationally with a pop-up at Galerie 3m2 in the Palais-Royal in Paris, France. Situated next to the Serge Lutens store, it was a location that could be called a cultural heart of fragrance.

What Defines the Brand

What the Name Diffar Means

Diffar is a coined word combining the English words “different” and “far.” It embodies the concept “Different experiences take you far,” expressing how the same scent can make a different impression depending on the day and the environment.

A Production Philosophy: Choosing a Laboratory in Minami-Alps

All Diffar fragrances are produced at Komons Fragrance Lab., which Arii established in 2023. The laboratory is a renovation of his family home in Minami-Alps City, comprising the main house and a shed his grandfather built fifty years ago for grape growing. The arrangement, in which every stage from sourcing fragrance materials to formulation design, manufacturing, and quality control is handled entirely in-house, is highly unusual for a Japanese fragrance brand.

All the fragrance materials are essential oils made entirely from natural ingredients. No synthetic fragrances are used. Each Diffar scent blends fifteen to eighteen materials, and its complexity and refinement can be seen as the culmination of Arii’s many years of research.

The last three digits of the number in each product name indicate how many fragrance trials were needed to complete it. The “001” in the simplest creation, 11001 Tokyo Balance, means it came together perfectly on the first attempt. The “823” in 51823 Spicy Wood, the fragrance that took the most trials, indicates that it was completed after 823 samples had been made.

“Spicy Wood was the most complex combination, composed of agarwood (kyara), sandalwood, nutmeg, patchouli, and oakwood. I remade the sample 823 times before I could finally say, ‘This is it!’”

— Makoto Arii

A Commitment to Performance as a Hair Oil

True to its description as “a hair oil that lets you wear fragrance,” Diffar emphasizes care as well as scent. A base of plant oils including argan, jojoba, camellia, and evening primrose oils, together with shea butter, incorporates rapeseed-derived Erucalactone, a cuticle-repairing ingredient; pressed rice oil, which prevents UV damage; and tea seed oil from Gifu Prefecture’s “Tea Fields in the Sky” for scalp care. The texture is light and non-greasy, and the multipurpose formula can be used as a styling oil, care oil, body oil, or fragrance.

Tokyo hair salon SCENT contributed to product development as texture advisor, ensuring quality from the perspectives of both hairstyling and fragrance.

Visual Identity: Vibrant Bottles and a D&AD Award

Diffar’s striking visual identity is the work of art director Kenzo Shibata. Color-blocking on minimalist glass bottles evokes the color combinations of traditional kimono while also working as a modern design. London-based photographer Yuichiro Noda created the campaign imagery. He photographed the ingredients of each scent in their actual forms, then layered multiple materials into a single monochrome composite image, visually expressing the fragrance’s complexity and depth.

This design work was highly acclaimed, winning a Wood Pencil in the Packaging Design category at London’s prestigious D&AD Awards in 2025.

The Perfume Lineup

Diffar’s first collection consists of six scents. The first two digits in each product’s number identify its series, while the last three indicate the number of fragrance trials. All come in 90 ml bottles, priced from ¥6,200 to ¥11,000, including tax.

Product	Style	Core Notes	Price
11001 Tokyo Balance	Urban / Balance	Geranium, rose, Yoshino hinoki cypress, sandalwood, vetiver	¥6,800
21612 Woody Earthy	Dark / Grounding	Vetiver, patchouli, Aomori hiba, Yoshino hinoki cypress, juniper berry	¥6,800
31407 Herbal Floral	Green / Herbal	Galbanum, sage, thyme, armoise, tuberose, ylang-ylang*	¥6,200
41504 Japanese Citrus	Fresh / Japanese	Shimanto yuzu, Wakayama sansho pepper, Yoshino hinoki cypress	¥6,200
51823 Spicy Wood	Urban / Cool	Agarwood (kyara), sandalwood, nutmeg, patchouli, oakwood	¥11,000
61705 Floral Floral	Wild / Elegant	Jasmine, rose, neroli, osmanthus, ylang-ylang, tuberose, vanilla	¥8,800

*The ylang-ylang in Herbal Floral uses only essential oil extracted within the first fifteen minutes of distillation.

Each fragrance is accompanied by a poetic concept statement. Tokyo Balance, for example, evokes “Tokyo in the rain. From the green tones of geranium and the splendor of rose to the stillness of Yoshino hinoki and sandalwood.” Spicy Wood presents the world of “The soul exists. Kyara, which has intoxicated warriors and nobles since ancient times. Sandalwood, inviting you into a world of meditation.”

Spicy Wood is particularly expensive, at ¥11,000, because it uses a large proportion of rare materials, including agarwood (kyara).

A Few More Details…

The Idea Behind the Company Name Unsungs&Web: “Unsungs” in the name of the company Arii heads, Unsungs&Web, derives from the English word meaning “not yet praised or brought into the light.” It expresses a desire to bring the many wonderful things in Japan that have not yet been featured to the global market.

A Long-Term Vision of Thirty Brands: Arii has set a medium- to long-term goal of creating thirty brands. His strategic view is that building thirty distinctive brands with annual sales of ¥300 million each is more constructive than building one brand with annual sales of ¥10 billion. It is also interesting that all four of his brands, Komons, Diffar, YO, and FRUITEST, are reportedly operating profitably.

FRUITEST: Exploring Fragrance Through Fruit: As something of a precursor to Diffar, Arii also created FRUITEST, a brand of semi-dried, fully ripened fruit. Starting from the shock he felt after moving to Tokyo at the lack of aroma in plastic-wrapped fruit, he developed “rare dried fruit” that captures as much as possible of the fragrance of fully ripened fruit freshly picked where it is grown.

The Paris Launch Venue at the Palais-Royal: Galerie 3m2, chosen for the 2024 Paris launch, is located in the arcades of the Palais-Royal, next to the Serge Lutens boutique. Debuting in this location, which could be described as a cultural center of fragrance, symbolized Diffar’s ambition to address the global perfume market as well as Japan.