The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2016–2022
Shiseido signed D&G's license to grow abroad — it cost ¥35B and D&G Beauty left Japan
Shiseido licensed Dolce & Gabbana's beauty business to grow abroad; COVID gutted sales, the license became a ¥35B write-off, and D&G Beauty left Japan in 2022.
Shiseido · Dolce & Gabbana · 2022-12-31
What happened
In October 2016 Shiseido signed a global license with Dolce & Gabbana covering the production and sale of the Italian house's fragrances and cosmetics worldwide, part of its push to strengthen its Europe and US business. Under the license, D&G Beauty launched in Japan in 2019, selling through department-store counters and its own shops.
On April 28, 2021 Shiseido announced it would end the contract at the close of December 2021 and expected to book a special loss of about ¥35 billion, mostly an impairment of the trademark rights. The pandemic had gutted cosmetics sales — Shiseido's own FY2020 net loss was ¥11.6 billion — and the license, signed to grow overseas, had become a charge on the balance sheet.
A bridge company, BPI, kept production and sales running from January 2022 for at least 12 months. Then D&G Beauty ended its Japan operations: Lumine Yokohama closed December 30, 2022; Ginza Mitsukoshi, Shiseido Beauty Square and Takashimaya Osaka closed December 31; and all of its Japan online shops shut at the same time.
The brand returned to Japan in September 2025 — this time on its own, launching a makeup collection handled in-house at its Shibuya Scramble Square and Ginza stores, without a local license partner.
Why it happened
- Shiseido bet the license to strengthen its overseas business, but the pandemic erased cosmetics demand before it paid off — the ¥35 billion impairment was the cost of a strategy that never matured
- D&G Beauty's Japan presence was built entirely on the licensee's counters and shops; when Shiseido cut the contract, the retail network had no owner and wound down within a year
- COVID-19 hit department-store beauty hardest, and D&G Beauty's Japan stores were mostly department-store counters — the channel its partner was retreating from
- The Japan business never reached independent scale: launched in 2019, orphaned in 2021 — barely two years, too short to stand on its own when the licensee walked away
The lesson
A license is a bet, not a business: when COVID killed sales, Shiseido's D&G contract ended in a ¥35B write-off — and the brand's Japan network, built on the licensee's counters, closed a year later.
Aftermath
BPI kept production and sales running from January 2022 for at least 12 months as a bridge. At the end of December 2022 D&G Beauty closed its last Japanese stores — Lumine Yokohama on the 30th, Ginza Mitsukoshi, Shiseido Beauty Square and Takashimaya Osaka on the 31st — and shut its Japan online shops. Shiseido booked the ¥35 billion special loss for its FY2021 results. In September 2025 D&G Beauty returned to Japan on its own, launching a makeup collection handled in-house at its Shibuya and Ginza stores, without a local license partner.
Sources
- 朝日新聞 — 資生堂、「D＆G」と契約解消 350億円特損計上へ (2021-04-29)
- FASHIONSNAP — ドルチェ＆ガッバーナ ビューティ、12月末で日本での営業終了 (2022-12-24)
- FASHIONSNAP — 「ドルチェ＆ガッバーナ」のメイクアップコレクションが登場 2022年末に日本撤退 (2025-09-11)
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