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Shampoos in Japan

When we first came to Japan, we came prepared with our own shampoo and conditioner, and since then we have been getting more through care packages from America, but we are now ready to conquer the confusing aspect of discerning which shampoos to avoid and which are good. We already know which ingredients to avoid, but everything in Japanese looks like a nasty chemical composition, so I finally researched what certain nasty chemicals are written as in Japanese. But before I loose you with a list of chemicals in English and Japanese, I would like to let you know a few general rules to look out for when reading labels in Japanese. Just like in English, there really should not be any numbers listed as ingredients, but I understand that for shampoos which do contain chemicals which are not all bad, it can be hard to tell. Another note is to look for abbreviations such as (DEP) which again you may need to know which abbreviations are particularly bad unless you would rather avoid any and all of them. And my last little tip is to look for the kanji for color (色) because you may want to avoid those if you know and want what is best for yourself.

I looked at the ingredients for KAO (essential, merrito (メリット), asiance), Naive, Kracie Dear Beaut’e Oil – himawari, Reveur, Kunama horse oil, Lebel Cosmetics Natural Hair Soap with Seaweed Shampoo, tsubaki (shiseido), ichikami, LUX (Unilever), and diane, je l’aime which were what I found when I tried to look for natural or pure or organic Japanese shampoos with Google, and all of these brands are not the best choice for a truly natural and pure shampoo. They all had some or many really bad chemicals in them. Another thing that I found interesting is that it seems that in Japan, shampoos are either silicon based or silicon free whereas in America, I would have to say that shampoos advertise as being sulfate or paraben free. I did find a few Japanese shampoos that were sulfate and or paraben free, but they still had other harmful chemicals in them. There was one shampoo called Pure Natural which I would say has decent ingredients, and other than that I also found a shampoo called stella steed – Ahalo Bata which I could barely find any information on and I also could not find a specific list of ingredients to check. I am not sure how easy to find either of these would be either, the Ahalo Bata may be exclusively online, I am not sure though.

Here is the list of chemicals found in shampoos to avoid if you want to make the healthiest choice for your body. The translations may not be 100% accurate since I only used Google Translate, but they seem pretty accurate with a few ingredient lists I have looked at.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (ラウリル硫酸ナトリウム)/ Sodium Laureth Sulfate (ナトリウムラウレスサルフェート) (SLS and SLES) / DEA Lauryl Sulfate or Diethanolamine Lauryl Sulfate (ジエタノールアミンラウリルスルフェート)
Ammonium lauryl sulfate (ラウリル硫酸アンモニウム)

Petroleum (石油) AKA Mineral Oil (鉱油)

Paraffin (パラフィン)

Propylene Glycol (プロピレングリコール) / polyethylene glycol (ポリエチレングリコール)

parabens ((Methylparaben (メチルパラベン)/ Ethylparaben (エチルパラベン)/ Butylparaben (ブチルパラベン)

polyoxyethelyne (PEG) (ポリオキシエチレン)/ Isobutylparaben (イソブチルパラベン)/ Propylparaben (プロピルパラベン)

Formaldehyde (ホルムアルデヒド) (which will usually be seen as: quaternium-15 (クオタニウム-15), DMDM hydantoin (DMDMヒダントイン), imidazolidinyl urea (イミダゾリジニル尿素), diazolidinyl urea (ジアゾリジニル尿素), sodium hydroxymethylglycinate (ヒドロキシメチルグリシン酸ナトリウム), 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1 (2-ブロモ-2-ニトロプロパン-1),3 diol (Bronopol) (3ジオール [ブロノポール]), glyoxal (グリオキサル) and oxaldehyde (オキサルデヒド))

sodium benzoate (安息香酸ナトリウム)
dimethicone (ジメチコン)
diethanolamine (DEA) (ジエタノールアミン)/ Triethanolamine (TEA) (トリエタノールアミン)
panthenol (パンテノール)
Cocamidopropyl Betaine (コカミドプロピルベタイン)
zinc pyrithione (亜鉛ピリチオン)
Hydroquinone (ヒドロキノン)
Phthalates (フタル酸エステル) (Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) (ジブチルフタレート), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) (フタル酸ジエチルヘキシル), Diethyl phthalate (DEP) (ジエチルフタレート))

Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate (ヨードプロピニルブチルカルバメート)

Phenoxyethanol (フェノキシエタノール)

Cocamide DEA or Cocamide Diethanolamine (コカミドジエタノールアミン)
Lauramide DEA or Lauramide Diethanolamine (ラウラミドジエタノールアミン)
Linoleamide DEA or Linoleamide Diethanolamine (リノールアミドジエタノールアミン)
Oleamide DEA or Oleamide Diethanolamine (オレアミドジエタノールアミン)
TEA or Triethanolamine (トリエタノールアミン)

Methylisothiazolinone (メチルイソチアゾリノン)

And the rest are the least worse, but still could be avoided for optimal health
Synthetic Fragrance (合成香料) /Parfum (パルファム) / Perfume/scent (香水)
Synthetic Colors (合成色) (FD&C or D&C 色)
Triclosan (トリクロサン)
Alcohol (アルコール)
citric acid (クエン酸)
Sodium Chloride (塩化ナトリウム)

I’m not sure if these are actually bad chemicals or not:
Cocamidopropyl Betaine (コカミドプロピルベタイン)
Zinc Pyrithione (亜鉛ピリチオン)
lanolin (ラノリン)
– found in eyeliner
Mercury (水銀) (Thimerosal (チメロサール) and Merthiolate(メルチオレート))

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Rubbing Alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide in Japan

As we were packing to come to Japan, we brought a bunch of personal care products since we are aware that many companies add chemicals to body care products that we would rather avoid, but we thought that we could probably easily find things like rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, so we did not bring any with us. Once we started looking for rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, we quickly realized that we were not easily going to find any. At the pharmacy section of a store, we typed the term “rubbing alcohol” into google translate and showed the store attendant the translated result, “消毒用アルコール” and she guided us to a small expensive bottle which after we purchased we realized that it was a lime scented disinfectant. We did the same for hydrogen peroxide, we typed it in and got “過酸化水素” and the store attendant was puzzled, I think she knew what it was, but didn’t think you could buy purely it. She led us into the connected grocery part of the store and led us to the floor cleaning supplies which may have contained hydrogen peroxide.

maybe next time we should look for / ask about オキシドール when looking for hydrogen peroxide

and try looking for 消毒用工タノール for rubbing alcohol

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How to Understand “Japanese Sentence Structure”

Japanese sentence structure:

Japanese sentence structure can be confusing because in Japanese you can arrange bits of information in various orders within a sentence as long as certain words remain connected to particles. In Japanese, the subject is always either at the beginning of the sentence or is already known and is left out of the sentence. When the subject is declared at the beginning of the sentence, it is followed by either は or が or も depending on whether you are talking about something (は) or answering a question of who/what, or specifying who/what did/had/has/went/came/saw/etc (が) or if the subject also did/had/went/saw/came/etc (も).

If you don’t know Hiragana or Katakana or Kanji learn it here for FREE.

Take the sentence: I came to Japan which in Japanese Is わたしは日本にきました。Which can also be said as 日本にきました with わたしは (the subject) omitted because if you are saying it, the fact that you are the subject is inferred. But if you want to specify who came to Japan, you would say whoever came with the particle が to emphases that it was them who came. The point of the sentence is always at the end, whether it be the verb (what is being done) or an adjective (describing the subject) or a noun (stating what something is).

Now if you wanted to add some additional information to this sentence (any of the 5W’s in English), like who you came with or how you came, or when you came, or why you came, you can include those bits of information anywhere in the sentence as long as every piece remains connected to the correct particle. For example, bits of information such as {「ひとりで」 or 「ともだちと」 or「かぞくと」} or「(a specific date) に」「(method of transportation) で」「(explanation of why) から」can all be arranged in any order as long as the subject stays at the beginning and the point at the end.

わたし is followed by either は(if you are talking about yourself), or が(if you are the person who did/had/has/was/went/etc.), or も(if you also did/had/went/saw/came/etc.), or と(if you are talking about someone else but you were also included), or に(if you are the recipient of the verb {something was given TO you or said TO you} depending on the sentence. The noun being affected by the verb is always connected to the particle that goes with the verb. I have written a post about verbs with a section about particles used with specific verbs other than the usual verb particle を. So in this sentence 日本 and に have to remain connected, and the sentence will always end with the verb (in this case, adjectives in others).

If you don’t know Hiragana or Katakana or Kanji learn it here for FREE.

Making comparisons in Japanese

The main words used for making comparisons in Japanese are: より and のほが. To best understand, think of the definition of より to mean “compared to”and のほが to mean “more (or in English “er” than)”. Whatever is connected to より is the subject of comparison, and whatever is connected to のほが is what is more (whatever adjective) than.

The sentence アメリカのほがおおきいです。Means that America is bigger. Bigger than what, we don’t necessarily know, but if you were to include 日本より either before or after アメリカのほが, we would know that we are comparing America to Japan because 日本より means “compared to Japan”. So, 日本よりアメリカのほがおおきいです。Or アメリカのほが日本よりおおきいです。Are two different ways to say that compared to Japan, America is bigger (or America is bigger than Japan).

Another example of a comparison sentence using より but not のほが is when you are taking a statement and adding the fact that compared to something else, that statement remains. For example, アメリカはおおきいです。America is big. This general statement is true, and if we add the comparison of Japan for instance, the fact would remain true, so we can add 日本より before or after アメリカは. But if you put 日本より first, it then becomes the subject and therefore アメリカは would change to アメリカが because it is now being emphasized that being compared to Japan, America is what is big, or in other words it is answering the question of what is big compared to Japan. So, 日本よりアメリカがおおきいです。Or アメリカは日本よりおおきいです。

–Nihon Scope

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