Tokyo Barber School (東京理容専修学校)

Tokyo Barber School in Chiyoda, a few minutes from Suidobashi and Jimbocho stations, is unusual in this directory for being barbering-only, no beauty department alongside, and it offers the widest range of routes to the national licence of the three Japanese colleges here.

Three courses run. The two-year daytime barber training course costs 810,000 yen in total, which is markedly cheaper than the other Tokyo option. The three-year correspondence course is designed for people already employed in a salon, that is a firm entry condition, and combines self-directed study and submitted reports with roughly three weeks of intensive summer schooling each year plus a five-day spring session in the final year, with graduation requiring report assignments, a practical exam and a written exam. A one-year course runs for people who already hold a beautician licence, at 1,240,000 yen.

The school operates under Japan’s government training benefit scheme, which can offset fees for eligible students, worth checking your entitlement before enrolling.

A note on Japanese credentials, because they matter more here than almost anywhere. Barbering, riyō, is a licensed profession in Japan. To practise you must graduate from a training facility designated by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare and then pass the national barber examination. A short private course confers nothing. All three Japanese providers listed here are designated colleges, which is why the list is short: in Japan there is essentially no other legitimate route.