The hardships for the small independent business brought by neo-liberal globalization: The case study of barber shops and beauty salons in Japan

Neo-liberal policy, started from 1980s in Japan, brought abolition of legal protections for hair industry. As a traditional industry, barber shops and beauty salons have been one of the small businesses which target to local market and depend on only their ability as a technician. For these reasons, it is difficult for them to expand their market. They can not increase the productivity by machinery nor get foreign exchange by trade. In short, the industry has no international economic competitive power.

For 40 years until the middle of 1990s, barber shops and beauty salons had been given favorable treatments. They could maintain agreed price and settled business days and hours as a legal cartel, nationally. The tax system applied for them was arranged especially for small companies. One of the reasons for these treatments was that the small business traders like barber and hairdresser had been the sources of votes for the Liberal Democratic Party, the Government party of those days.

However, the Liberal Democratic Party lost office in the middle of 1990s. The legal protections were abolished and new larger capitals (for example IT capital) started to invest in the hair industry. As a result, barber shops have reduced their number and beauty salons have suffered from the price competition caused by large capital.

In conclusion, neo-liberal globalization put a question before them. What is the ground on which they demand political and legal protections? Now, barbers and hairdressers have to reform their jobs as it ought to be.