Hajime Endo: Making People Happy Through Beauty

Since September 2022, I have served as the representative of istyle Inc., a company that operates "@cosme," a beauty-focused business encompassing media, e-commerce, and physical retail stores.

I have been in this industry for nearly 20 years. It all started when a senior alumnus from my university seminar, who was running a cosmetics retail company, invited me to work with him.

Later, a joint venture between that company and istyle led me to join istyle, where I remain today.

istyle operates under the vision of "Creating a consumer-centric market" and the mission to "Update the world of beauty and make many people happy."

While istyle's strength lies in the fact that our "@cosme" service is supported by a vast number of consumers, our fundamental strength is that everyone in the company is earnestly committed to the aforementioned vision and mission. As a symbol of this earnest commitment, we opened a large-scale flagship store, "@cosme TOKYO," in front of JR Harajuku Station in 2020. We wanted to create a place where everyone who visits—from our customers and brand partners to our own employees—feels, "I'm happy and having fun being here." I believe we have achieved that to a certain extent.

As the president of a company engaged in such work, what I value most is "organizational management with high psychological safety." In other words, creating a company where everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions in various situations.

I realized the importance of this because my mentor from my university seminar, the late Professor Hirokuni Sogawa, always acted in that manner. I suddenly remembered how he always accepted my mischievous comments with a warm attitude, and I have been conscious of it ever since.

I intend to continue cherishing the teachings Professor Sogawa demonstrated through his actions and move forward to make as many people happy as possible.