Both prosperity and turbulence characterize Japan in the 1920s and ’30s. Having sided with the Allies during the First World War, the Japanese found profitable markets in Europe. The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, which leveled much of Tokyo, provided additional opportunities for modernization and urban growth. Western influences still dominated—especially in art and design and Art Nouveau continued to exert enormous appeal. Other European styles—French Art Deco, Italian Futurism, and Russian and German Constructivism—helped fuel the creative amalgam known as "Japanese Modern." The new domains of commercial art (shōgyō bijutsu), and product design (shōgyō kōgei), were to yield unsurpassed innovations. Imbued with a purpose, art was considered integral to both daily life and the urban environment.

A new breed of individuals in tune with the West emerged, known as modan bōi and modan gāru—Japanese adaptations of "modern boy" and "modern girl"—soon shortened to mobo and moga. Shinzo Fukuhara, the son and heir of Shiseido’s founder, was a mobo who had studied in New York City. A talented photographer and art connoisseur, he established Shiseido’s first design department in 1917. He also initiated in-house publications featuring articles on modern lifestyle and culture alongside advertisements promoting exquisitely packaged cosmetics.