Takasago: A Century of Technology That Pioneered Japan’s Synthetic Fragrance Industry

“My personal perception of scientific research is that it’s a never ending journey of knowledge.”
Ryoji Noyori — “Where am I From? Where Are You Going?”, lecture at Lindau, 2015

How can the molecule responsible for mint‘s cooling sensation be made in precisely the desired form? How can layers of woody scent suggest a new kind of wood that does not exist in nature? Takasago’s work encompasses both the chemistry of making molecules and the perfumery of composing scents.

Its origins lie in what a Japanese chemist learned in Europe toward the end of the Meiji era. Takasago International Corporation is a Japanese fragrance and flavor company founded in 1920. From its founder’s research notebooks to the asymmetric synthesis of menthol and perfumes composed by perfumers around the world, its history reveals how a company whose name rarely appears on the front of a bottle has expanded the possibilities of scent.

Key Facts
The Founder and the Origins of Japan’s Fragrance Industry
Asymmetric Synthesis: From Menthol to Wider Applications
Securing Natural Materials and Bringing Them into Fragrance
Turning Ingredients and Research into Perfume
Milestones
References

Key Facts

Official name: Takasago International Corporation
Founded: February 9, 1920, originally as Takasago Perfumery Company
Founder: Tadaka Kainosho, who established the company with Yoshinori Kishi and others
Headquarters: Kamata, Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Main businesses: Flavors, fragrances, aroma ingredients, and fine chemicals
Official website: Takasago International Corporation

Flavors concern the aroma and taste of food and beverages, while fragrances concern the scents of perfumes, cosmetics, detergents, and similar products. Aroma ingredients are the raw materials used to compose them. In fine chemicals, the company also applies asymmetric synthesis and catalyst technologies to pharmaceutical intermediates, electronic materials, and other products.

Consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 2026 were ¥225.092 billion. This figure covers the entire group’s operations, including compounded flavors and fragrances and fine chemicals, not aroma ingredients alone.

The Founder and the Origins of Japan’s Fragrance Industry

What a Kyoto Chemist Learned in Grasse

Tadaka Kainosho was born in Kyoto in 1880. He studied chemistry at Kyoto Imperial University and remained there after graduation, becoming an associate professor in 1906. Japan’s soap and cosmetics industries were beginning to develop, but the ingredients used to scent their products depended on imports from Europe and the United States.

In 1910, Kainosho traveled to Europe at his own expense to study fragrance materials. He had no institution waiting to receive him. After studying the language in Dijon, France, he went to Grasse, a center of natural fragrance production, in 1911.

His landlady opened the door to practical work. A seasonal worker at a fragrance company, she arranged for him to attend a company called J.B. Selin as an apprentice. He helped with seasonal orange-blossom work and learned natural fragrance production firsthand. In time, he learned to recognize raw materials by smell and encountered the fundamentals of compounding.

Synthetic Ingredients in Geneva, and the Scent of Soap

During his stay in Grasse, his former teacher Mitsuru Kuhara helped arrange a position at Marumiya, the maker of Mitsuwa Soap. Marumiya paid for him to continue studying abroad, and Kainosho moved to Geneva in March 1912. His training took place at Givaudan.

There he studied the manufacture of synthetic fragrance ingredients and encountered new perfume formulas combining natural and synthetic materials. Extracting a plant’s scent, synthesizing the molecules responsible for it, and composing a desired smell from multiple ingredients: Kainosho recorded each kind of knowledge in his notebooks. Written in a mixture of French and German, they preserve essential-oil production methods, odor characteristics, synthesis procedures, and perfume formulas.

After returning to Japan in late 1913, Kainosho began manufacturing synthetic ingredients, experimenting with natural materials, and blending perfumes at Marumiya the following year. When the First World War began in the summer of 1914, imports became difficult and Japanese soap and cosmetics manufacturers needed domestically produced fragrance materials. His European training became a means of supporting production at home.

A Company Founded by Technical Specialists in 1920

Once the war ended and imports resumed, however, Japanese fragrance ingredients faced competition in price and quality. Marumiya reduced its fragrance operations, and Kainosho left in July 1919.

Yoshinori Kishi, a senior alumnus of Kyoto Imperial University who had also left Marumiya, encouraged him to establish a fragrance company. Technical specialists trained by Kainosho joined them, and they sought investors and business partners through university and Kyoto First Middle School connections. With the aim of manufacturing from Asian fragrance resources rather than depending on imports, Takasago Perfumery Company was founded on February 9, 1920. Its headquarters moved to the Kamata factory that July.

Initially focused on synthetic ingredients, the company introduced an ozone-oxidation process for producing vanillin and heliotropin from safrole in 1928. The following year, it exported three tonnes of safrole to Switzerland. It was beginning to move from buying fragrance materials abroad to supplying its own materials overseas.

A Postwar Restart and Overseas Compounding Centers

After expanding production in Taiwan and experiencing wartime changes to its business foundations, the company opened its Hiratsuka factory in 1947. In 1951, the manufacturing company Takasago Chemical and the sales company Takasago Perfumery merged to form the present Takasago International Corporation.

Representative offices opened in New York and Paris in 1960. In 1963, the company established a compounded-fragrance laboratory in Paris and an Amazon fragrance research institute in Brazil. Subsidiaries in France and the United States further expanded overseas ingredient supply and fragrance creation. A business originally centered on synthetic ingredient manufacture developed into a comprehensive flavor and fragrance operation, composing scents for regional foods, everyday products, and perfumes.

Asymmetric Synthesis: From Menthol to Wider Applications

Molecular Shape, Scent, and Cooling Sensation

Menthol is a major component associated with mint’s cooling sensation. Even when molecules contain the same types and numbers of atoms, their properties can differ according to their three-dimensional arrangement. Menthol has eight stereoisomers; l-menthol, with its suitable cooling sensation and flavor, has long been widely used in toothpaste and chewing gum.

A molecule is described as chiral when its mirror image cannot be superimposed on the original, like a left and a right hand. Asymmetric synthesis preferentially produces molecules with the desired spatial arrangement. In fragrance materials, selecting molecular shape also influences the quality and strength of odor and the character of flavor.

Takasago began small-scale synthetic menthol production in 1954. It initially used citronellal derived from natural citronella oil, later moving to a process that separated a mixture obtained from the petrochemical raw material thymol. Against the backdrop of the oil crises of the 1970s and other pressures, raw-material and energy costs affected competitiveness, creating a need for a new process.

From University Catalyst Research to Factory Production

A catalyst using the metal rhodium and BINAP, which controls molecular stereochemistry, opened a new route. Research into asymmetric isomerization with Sei Otsuka and colleagues at Osaka University came together with the development of BINAP by Ryoji Noyori, Hidemasa Takaya, and colleagues at Nagoya University. The key reaction selectively rearranged an amine compound to obtain an intermediate that could be converted into the desired menthol.

Takasago researchers including Hidenori Kumobayashi and Susumu Akutagawa undertook industrialization. How could the starting amine and BINAP be manufactured? How could the metal catalyst be prepared simply, and how could it operate efficiently enough? Their 1997 paper describes four challenges they resolved to make the manufacturing process viable.

In his 2000 article on the practical application of asymmetric synthesis, Kumobayashi explains how progress during development arose from analyzing and interpreting results and accumulating new findings.

“I would like to emphasize the importance of experimentation.”
Hidenori Kumobayashi — “Practical Application of Asymmetric Synthesis Technology,” 2000 (translated from Japanese)

In July 1983, Takasago began producing l-menthol by asymmetric synthesis at its Iwata factory. Turning a laboratory reaction into industrial supply required both academic research and the company’s work on refining manufacturing conditions.

Ryoji Noyori’s 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized his work on chirally catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation. At the time, he also served as an outside director of Takasago. The industrial production of menthol was an important example of asymmetric catalysis reaching industry; Takasago subsequently extended asymmetric synthesis to the manufacture of pharmaceutical intermediates.

Chiraroma: Expanding the Perfumer’s Palette

Technology that selects and produces molecular shapes extends beyond the supply of menthol. Takasago’s Chiraroma range brings together ingredients used in perfumery, including l-citronellol, l-muscone, and Levocitrile. Research thus becomes part of the palette from which perfumers compose scents.

Biomuguet, introduced from 2014, is a lily-of-the-valley-like ingredient made using a sugarcane-derived raw material. The company lists its biobased content as 100 percent. This indicates the origin of the raw material; in fragrance creation, it is positioned as a material with green, aldehydic, and aquatic characteristics alongside its floral character.

Application materials describe its compatibility with marine and citrus notes and explain that combining it with Biocyclamol can extend a lily-of-the-valley impression into the drydown. Research into raw-material origins and exploration of creative possibilities thus meet within a single ingredient.

Securing Natural Materials and Bringing Them into Fragrance

Working with natural fragrance materials involves not only extracting a plant’s scent, but also ensuring that the plant can continue to be cultivated. In 2013, Takasago established a joint venture in Madagascar to secure natural vanilla resources, primarily for food flavors.

In January 2016, it acquired all shares in the US company Center Ingredient Technology (CIT). CIT manufactures natural flavor and fragrance ingredients using biotechnology. Alongside plant extraction, enzyme reactions and microbial fermentation expanded within the group’s ingredient production.

There are also examples of direct involvement in cultivation. As disease and climate affected Florida’s citrus production, Takasago began working with an essential-oil processor and a farm in 2019 to plant grapefruit trees. In 2024, essential oil from fruit grown on those trees became available to development teams. Procuring fragrance materials can involve waiting several years for a harvest.

Current research also explores converting unused raw materials into useful chemicals. In 2024, a project to develop bio-upcycling technology was selected for a NEDO program. Which resources and processes should be used to create scent? Securing natural materials, synthesis, and biotechnology now provide several complementary routes to ingredient supply.

Turning Ingredients and Research into Perfume

Hero: A Composition of Cedarwoods from Three Origins

Burberry Hero Eau de Toilette, launched in 2021, illustrates how ingredient choices shape a composition. Its perfumer, Aurélien Guichard, joined Takasago in May 2018.

Guichard combined cedarwoods from the Atlas Mountains, Virginia, and the Himalayas. In his account, Atlas cedarwood is soft, deep, and ambery; Virginia cedarwood is dry and lively; and Himalayan cedarwood has leathery, animalic, and honeyed qualities.

“A perfect and unique blend of three origins of cedarwoods, between sensuality, strength and animality, creating a fourth imaginary cedarwood.”
Aurélien Guichard — Takasago’s official interview on the creation of Burberry Hero

Rather than merely placing several woods side by side, he layered them to evoke a new kind of wood. He arranged the relationship between the brightness of bergamot, juniper, and pepper and the woody scent apparent from the opening, aiming for a fabric-like texture. Knowledge of a plant’s origin and character feeds directly into the composition’s expression.

CLEAN and the Memory of Freshly Washed Fabric

CLEAN perfumes translate the everyday feeling of freshly washed fabric into scent. Inspired by the comfort of clean cotton sheets, RESERVE Warm Cotton moves from airy cleanliness toward warm musk. The Laotian benzoin highlighted by the brand is a sweet, balsamic resin and one of the ingredients supporting that comforting quality.

Soft Laundry, released in 2022 and composed by Steven Claisse while working at Takasago, also takes laundry as its theme. Inspired by cool spring air and the lingering warmth of sunlight, it connects pear, bergamot, and a watery accord with flowers and musk. An accord is a coherent scent formed by combining several ingredients. Recreating a familiar memory can require building impressions that natural plants alone cannot provide.

H2EAU: Combining Water and Fragrance

CLEAN RESERVE H2EAU brings fragrance composition together with research into formulations that deliver fragrance to the skin. HYDRO-TEC, co-developed by CLEAN and Takasago, is a microemulsion technology that stably combines water and fragrance oil. Fine oil domains coexist with water, producing water-based perfumes without ethyl alcohol.

In the collection, Claisse composed fragrances including Golden Citrus and Musk Noir, while Catherine Selig composed Brilliant Peony and Water Lotus, among others. Using both natural and synthetic ingredients, they develop a shared water accord in different compositions. This connects an olfactory expression of water with a formulation actually based on water.

Takasago’s present role extends from creating new ingredients to incorporating them into compositions and making them stable and usable in finished products. The three disciplines Kainosho studied—natural materials, synthetic ingredients, and perfumery—continue to develop their expertise in different places while meeting within a single perfume.

Milestones

1910–1912: Tadaka Kainosho travels to Europe, studying natural fragrance materials in Grasse and synthetic ingredients and perfumery in Geneva.
1920: Takasago Perfumery Company is established on February 9. Its headquarters move to the Kamata factory in July.
1928: Production begins using ozone oxidation to make vanillin and heliotropin from safrole.
1929: Three tonnes of safrole are exported to Switzerland, described in the official history as Japan’s first fragrance-material export.
1947–1951: Operations restart at Hiratsuka. In 1951, the manufacturing and sales companies merge to form Takasago International Corporation.
1954: Small-scale production of synthetic menthol begins.
1960–1968: Representative offices in Europe and the United States, laboratories in Paris and Brazil, and French and US subsidiaries open in succession.
1980: BINAP research by Ryoji Noyori and colleagues advances alongside research into rhodium–BINAP asymmetric isomerization and menthol synthesis.
1983: Production of l-menthol by asymmetric synthesis begins at Iwata in July.
1992: Production of pharmaceutical intermediates using asymmetric synthesis begins at Iwata.
2001: Ryoji Noyori, then an outside director, receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into asymmetric hydrogenation.
2013–2014: A natural-vanilla joint venture is established in Madagascar. Sugarcane-derived Biomuguet is introduced from the following year.
2016: The CIT acquisition agreement and share transfer take place on January 19, expanding biological production of natural fragrance and flavor ingredients.
2020: The company celebrates its centenary.
2022: Founding-period materials, including Kainosho’s notebooks, are designated Chemical Heritage No. 060 by the Chemical Society of Japan.
2024: Grapefruit essential oil from the Florida planting project becomes available for development. Work also begins on bio-upcycling unused raw materials.