Speeding up business with AI: Quick Note

Research evidence excerpt

Speeding up business with AI: Quick Note

Global Markets Research

25 June 2026Kao

4452.T 4452 JP / EQUITY: JAPAN TOILETRIES & COSMETICS

RatingSpeeding up business with AI Buy

Target price JPY 7,550Quick Note

Closing price

25 June 2026 JPY 6,241Company holds briefing featuring CEO as speaker

Kao hosted a briefing on 25 June featuring Representative Director, President and CEO (Note: Quick Note reports are not a

Yoshihiro Hasebe as speaker. President Hasebe opened with a presentation of the effects vehicle for changes to ratings, target

of using data and AI and the strength of the supply chain. Many of the questions in the prices, or earnings forecasts)

Q&A session had to do with these topics. Sales have been strong at the company, with,

for instance, its share of the toiletries market in Japan rising 35 straight months, and

margins have also improved. We attribute this to the concept of ROIC, the most important

KPI in the K27 medium-term business plan, being instilled throughout the workforce and Research Analysts

the mechanism for using the company's accumulated data and AI being made available at

Japan toiletries & cosmeticsevery level of the company, and our sense is that the business has been functioning

Yuji Ohana - NSCfavorably. The results in Japan have been notable, and we are interested to see what

yuji.ohana@nomura.com

happens overseas. Next we give an overview of the briefing. +81-3-6703-1143

The use of data and AI; ROIC: The company said one of its strengths is that it has

accumulated prescription data from upstream areas in its chemical segment and

manufacturing and sales data by virtue of having various B2C product categories. By

using AI, it said it has been able to quickly build up prescriptions for raw materials and