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SHŌWA 45 | AUGUST 1970

理髪店帝国


BARBERSHOP EMPIRE

 L U X U R Y    B A R B E R 

 オー・スネイル 富士山に登ろう でも、ゆっくり、ゆっくり 

O Snail; Climb Mount Fuji But slowly, slowly!

OSAKA, OSAKA — EVENING
_{OSAKA PREFECTURE, Nippon-Nihon}

| With money scarce and hairstyles getting longer, many men take time between haircuts. In some cities, barbers say their business is down between 25% and 50%. However, barbers’ problems seem small when compared to those of barber chair manufacturers. It was a cozy industry for many years; Several national companies saw their profits grow, constantly selling around 10,000 chairs a year to the 100,000 American barbershops. Then, in 1957, with the establishment of Osaka’s Takara Belmont Co. in the United States, a classic Japanese takeover began. Takara’s copying skills were so deft that a kind of Japanese record for daring was set. Its first models were almost exact copies of chairs produced by the leading American manufacturer, Chicago’s Emil J. Paidar Co. The parts were interchangeable. Therefore, if chair parts broke, Takara simply purchased replacement parts from Paidar, eliminating the need for expensive shipping or an even more expensive service network. |

| In addition to selling its chairs for 20% to 30% less than American chairs, Takara introduced a concept of planned obsolescence. New models are now released every 18 months. As a result, the firm’s chairs are often more advanced than anything the competition has. Takara’s latest model, sold in the United States for $1,000, is the ultimate in tonsorial care. It has a wraparound shape and a hydraulic system that automatically raises the seat and carefully lowers the backrest for massages or hot towel treatments; while clients’ hair is cut, an electrical system in the chair massages their back and calves. The firm’s salespeople boast that their chair is only for a king. Two users of the chairs are Emperor Hirohito, who has one in the Imperial Palace, and King Bhumibol of Siam. Takara holds 70% of the American market and earns $25 million worldwide. It inaugurated an assembly plant in Somerset, New Jersey, last year and acquired the Koken Companies, Inc.’s barber chair subsidiary. Currently, there is only one major American-owned manufacturer left: Paidar. The firm once held 70% of the market, but is now so troubled that President RICHARD NIXON gave it government assistance. |

| Takara’s head is HIDENOBU YOSHIKAWA, 70, having founded the firm 49 years ago. A devout Buddhist, Yoshikawa says that all of his business ideas are conceived, including entering the American market, during his daily periods of prayer. Takara’s $1,000,000 “Beautilion” at the Osaka World Expo is a pile of steel tubes and rounded capsules, reflecting YOSHIKAWA’s extravagant sense of promotion. 48 lotus leaf-shaped barber chairs lift visitors nearly nine feet into the air to view a display projected onto the ceiling; the melancholy soundtrack incorporates YOSHIKAWA’s voice in prayer. Although he is almost bald, YOSHIKAWA never fails to go to the barber, who trims the rest of his hair and gives him a massage. |