Stylish Salon Nakagawa

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Business at the local barbershop is not going well. Young men are starting to prefer beauty salons to barbershops, the birthrate is declining, and customer numbers are plateauing.

Each store holds a five-minute morning meeting every morning, during which the female employees chant the slogan loudly and in unison with other employees, using gestures.
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Each store holds a five-minute morning meeting every morning, during which the female employees chant the slogan loudly and in unison with other employees, using gestures.
In this situation, Oshare Salon Nakagawa, which has remove background image stores near Gakugei Daigaku Station in Tokyo, has introduced "encouraging morning meetings" and is attracting new customers.

Manager Hiroshi Nakagawa says, "We try to shout loudly during morning meetings. The purpose is to cheer everyone up by chanting the slogan and to increase a sense of unity. Nowadays, there are more and more low-cost salons that only do haircuts, and fewer barbershops that offer a full range of services, including cutting, shampooing, and shaving. But we want to emphasize the benefits of a full range of services. We aim to provide energetic service and have customers return to our salon again and again."

All the employees are young women. 22 people between the ages of 15 and 30, all just out of junior high school, serve customers. Half of them live in a dormitory near the workplace and come to work enthusiastically first thing in the morning. They greet with crispness and move briskly. This barbershop could be called a paradise for tired middle-aged men.

The content of the slogan is thought up by four female employees known as "morning assembly leaders." One of them, Sumiyo Kazama, says, "When we shout out loud together, we forget about the bad things." "When I had an argument with a colleague, we put our arms around each other's shoulders and kept chanting "Happy, happy" together, and the argument seemed silly. Then, when I realized how badly I had done to the person in front of me, tears naturally came to my eyes. When I attend morning assembly, I realize how important it is to work with my colleagues."

At Stylish Salon Nakagawa, in addition to morning meetings, they also organize monthly day trips and lavish Christmas parties to increase employee unity, which also leads to improved customer service.