Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Taisho's Baldness Remedy Takes Off

TOKYO -- With one hand stroking his thinning mane, a middle-aged man stares at pharmacist Kanako Yoshida in disbelief. Like his scalp, the shelves of her drug store are barren of RiUp, a Japanese hair-growth tonic that has topped the charts since Taisho Pharmaceutical began peddling it in June.

"I can get it to you in about two months if you get lucky and there's a cancellation," Yoshida explains patiently. "But you should sign up now or you'll be waiting until New Year's."

Yoshida, who says she turns away three or four customers a day, isn't alone in disappointing the follicularly challenged. Apothecaries nationwide have been overwhelmed by a crush of desperate men hoping they have found a miracle elixir for their alopecia. ...