Shiseido Co. executives expect difficult times heading into the second half of the fiscal year, as the global economic slowdown weighs on the industry, but the company still sees bright spots in growing demand for its products overseas—especially in China.

“We won’t be able to avoid a blow as we are a consumer product maker,” Shiseido President Shinzo Maeda said in an interview with the Wall Sreet Journal. But “the impact is slower than the speed of a slowdown in the economy itself.”