Ms. Suzuki Sonoko was born into a wealthy, upper-class family, the daughter of a banker. Her childhood, however, was spent in considerable poverty under her mother's unusually strict upbringing. Ms. Shonoko's mother used to say that children who grow up in poverty tend to go further than those who grow up in affluence, because they know how to treasure more. So Ms. Shonoko grew up knowing that she had to create everything with her own hands. Also through her mother's stern upbringing, she knows how to return a gesture of gratitude for any small happiness.
As an adult, Ms. Shonoko married her affluent husband as is the custom in Japan and became a full-time housewife, never thinking of working or having her own independent business until she was 44 years old.
When Ms. Shonoko was 44 years old, she was devastated by the death of her eldest son due to anorexia and, thinking that her own mother had died due to incorrect eating habits, she resolved to devote herself to a career in nutritional research to save the health of people who were suffering from dietary and nutritional problems.
Shonoko's commitment to her career at an early age was not easy for a woman like her in a male-dominated country like Japan, let alone a housewife who had never worked before. Despite the ridicule of her friends and family, Noko vowed not to let herself be defeated, and began to work 18 hours a day, gradually opening up her business empire. From the bottom of her heart, she held the belief that if I couldn't accomplish this, I wouldn't be able to save the anorexic children I hoped to save and those who became anorexic because they were too fat, so I couldn't afford to fail.
1974. Ltd. (now SONOKO) was founded, with Ms. Nobuko Sho as president. Over the next 20 years, she built SONOKO into a high-quality company with sales of 10 billion yen. She has published more than 10 best-selling books on beauty and nutrition, and has been honored as the "Queen of Whitening," "Master of Slimming," and "No. 1 in Internal and External Beauty" in Japan. In 1999, she became the first Japanese member of the Miss World judging panel when she became the head of the special review committee for the Miss World pageant.
Ms. Nobuko Sho has been advocating the concept of true inner and outer beauty all her life. She uses Japanese raw materials for food, and healthily processes many Western-style meals and delicious desserts with no additives or oils; she also adheres to the concept of inner and outer beauty in her cosmetics, and adopts safe, secure cosmetics developed based on the SONOKO standard. She hopes that women can remove all unnecessary burdens and stride forward with ease and freedom, in addition to self-respect, self-improvement and independence.