[Selected for Japan National Team] Glamour Beauty College produces a national representative for the second consecutive competition!

Glamour Beauty College (Naniwa-ku, Osaka) is proud to announce that Chizu Mori has been selected as a member of the Japanese national team for the hairdressing category at the 48th WorldSkills Competition, to be held in Shanghai, China, in September 2026.

Chizu Mori, a junior student to Yuki Hamayoshi—the first Japanese gold medalist in the hairdressing category at the 47th WorldSkills Competition held in Lyon, France, in 2024—will carry the pride of Japan as she challenges for another world title (aiming for consecutive gold medals). Currently training rigorously for the competition starting on September 22, 2026, we are now accepting interview requests for Chizu Mori.

Spotlight: Bridging Beauty and Barbering! The Rigorous Selection and Competition Content of Hairdressing The WorldSkills hairdressing competition is far from just a technical demonstration; it features extremely difficult, practical rules to compete for 'ultimate salon work techniques.' Athletes face harsh trials from the national team selection through to the main event.

- Rigorous selection requiring both beauty and barbering skills While domestic competitions separate 'beauty' and 'barbering,' international competitions integrate them into 'hairdressing.' Athletes must master both, including barbering techniques like tapering.

- Perfect reproduction of photographic styles (Model division task) Athletes must look at a provided photograph just 15 minutes before the competition begins and perfectly replicate the hairstyle.

- Improvisation for randomly assigned models In addition to mannequins, athletes must style hair on randomly selected female or male models on the spot, requiring overwhelming adaptability to assess bone structure and hair quality instantly.

- 7 tasks over 4 days Athletes compete in 7 different tasks over 4 long days. Generally, candidates must be 22 years old or younger in the year of the competition.

To be selected for the national team, athletes must be Japanese citizens and have achieved excellent results in domestic qualifiers such as the National Skills Competition. Since international competitions integrate the職種 into a single 'hairdressing' category, a separate 'secondary selection meeting' is held for those who won at least a fighting spirit award in the national tournament to determine the final representative.

WorldSkills Competition 2028 to be held in Aichi, Japan! Held every two years, it has been decided that the competition following Shanghai will be the 'WorldSkills Competition 2028 Aichi' in Japan.

Comment from Chizu Mori: 'I am very proud to compete in the Shanghai international competition as a representative of Japan. As a representative of the school that produced the first Japanese gold medalist, and as a representative of Japan, there is pressure, but it is surpassed by excitement. The domestic selection was very hard because it required barbering skills, but overcoming that wall allowed me to grow further. My goal is, of course, a gold medal. I will polish my 'ultimate salon work' techniques to respond immediately to any challenge or model, and prove the height of Japanese beauty skills to the world!'