The Kanebo Mutual Aid Society, a company-sponsored health insurance program, becomes the model for Japan’s national health insurance system. In 1907, the first employee clinic opens at the Hyogo factory in Kobe. Eventually, in 1923, Kanebo establishes a hospital in Kobe that serves the community at large and provides free medical service to the poor.

Kanebo is early recognized as a humane company leading in the promotion of worker welfare. In contrast to abusive labor conditions that are the norm at the time, Kanebo introduces policies to attract and retain workers. Kanebo offers employees a range of opportunities centered on supplementary education for both male and female employees and their children. Kanebo’s first apprentice school in 1905 is directed at work-related training for male employees. The Kanebo School for Girls established in 1907, however, is designed to provide the equivalent of the six-year compulsory elementary education program. For those who have already completed compulsory education, Kanebo offers courses in its School of Practical Learning for Girls in subjects including ethics, Japanese language, mathematics, geography, history, science, and home economics. In addition, courses such as sewing, housework, and etiquette, are in line with emerging visions of middle-class womanhood and marriage. Such supplementary education offers Kanebo’s female workers life opportunities and protection.

Kanebo shifts to silk thread production in 1908, silk fabric production in 1913, and raw-silk reeling operations in 1921. The Japanese government has placed a priority on developing the silk industry in order to increase exports to overseas markets. As the demand for high-quality Japanese silk grows in world markets, silk production becomes a key industry for Japan, representing roughly one-third of Japan’s entire commodity export earnings until 1930. Kanebo’s modernization of silk reeling is pivotal in transforming silk into a major Japanese industry.

Kanebo introduces SAVON DE SOIE, its first skin care product, in 1936. This luxury soap formulated with silk oil extracts is exported to Europe — particularly France — and to the United States. Molded with a delicate design and packaged beautifully, it has a sophisticated scent and pleasant feel that attracts wide appreciation among sophisticated women. On the advice of designer Tanaka Chio, who had been dispatched to Paris to research the cosmetics market there, each bar is wrapped in a luxurious silk handkerchief and placed in a silver case.