Kao Corp., a leading maker of cleansing, personal-care and sanitary products, does not plan to adopt a price-cutting strategy, its president said Tuesday.
In a news conference in Nagoya, Takuya Goto said prices of the nation's toiletry products, including detergents, have fallen by an average of 17 percent since 1991.
Kao will "launch value-added products while trying to preserve our company's prices," he said.
Goto also said he regards it as "extremely fortunate" that Kao "does not need to worry about falling stock or real estate prices."
"Our cross-held stockholdings are comparatively small, and we did not move to buy golf club memberships during the (asset-inflated) bubble era" of the late 1980s, he said.