The Joys and Sorrows of 1-Yen Pachinko

The Women on the Cosmetics Floor

Sales at department stores have been sluggish in recent years, but the stores' cosmetics sections are providing a ray of light with their robust growth. In 2017, sales at these sections jumped 17% from the previous year and topped 500 billion yen. Each day, about 2,000 customers buy their preferred makeup products at one long-established department store in Nagoya offering an array of famous brands. These customers include an 88-year-old company executive who never goes without makeup, a young woman setting on a new path in life by changing her job and her makeup, and an art dealer who considers cosmetics to be a vital part of her "combat uniform" worn during business battles. How do women want to present themselves and to be seen? For 3 days, we watched the customers quietly – but excitedly – finding their ideal makeup.