DHC

One of Japan's biggest skincare names began as a translation agency. DHC stands for Daigaku Honyaku Center, or University Translation Center, the business Yoshiaki Yoshida founded in 1972 to translate academic texts. The pivot to beauty came when Yoshida encountered exceptionally pure olive oil being produced in southern Spain and became convinced of its value for skin.

That conviction became the company's cornerstone. DHC's first product was Olive Virgin Oil, made from organic Spanish olives crushed in stone mills and ultra-purified in Japan, and it remains the brand's longest-selling item. But the product that carried DHC worldwide is the Deep Cleansing Oil, an olive-oil-based cleanser that dissolves makeup and sunscreen on dry skin before emulsifying away; the brand claims it sells one bottle every ten seconds globally. DHC built a sprawling mail-order and retail business, hundreds of its own stores across Japan, and a sideline in supplements, while drawing its philosophy from the Japanese double-cleansing tradition and old geisha makeup-removal rituals.

The brand's history also carries a serious stain. Beginning around 2016 and most prominently in 2020, founder and then-chairman Yoshida published columns on the company website that used a derogatory slur for ethnic Koreans and declared DHC a 'purely Japanese' firm. The remarks triggered widespread boycotts, prompted retailers and some local governments to cut ties, and led the brand to exit South Korea. In January 2023, the financial group ORIX acquired the company for roughly 300 billion yen in one of Japan's largest founder buyouts, Yoshida stepped down, and the new owner launched a governance and compliance overhaul.

On the products themselves, the value proposition is real: the cleansing oil is a genuinely effective, affordable workhorse, and the olive-oil range is simple and reliable. What it isn't is a science-forward, clinically studied line; its appeal rests on heritage, accessibility, and one excellent cleanser rather than cutting-edge actives. Shoppers weighing the brand should know its formulas are solid and its founder's record is not, a separation the post-2023 ownership is still working to establish.

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