Applying the same standards to all market participants

Ensuring safety is crucial, both from a legal and, more importantly, from a consumer perspective. Manufacturers and importers of cosmetics and quasi-drugs are therefore required to spend considerable resources implementing post-marketing surveillance and control schemes to monitor safety and quality. However, parallel importers do not always comply with these requirements, sometimes illegally using registered trademarks, importing versions of products that are not approved in Japan, and selling products with damaged or missing labels or that have passed their expiry dates.