Press & Awards
HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy interviews our CEO Ken Kobayashi
In March 2025, HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy — Recruit's free learning site for people who run beauty salons in Japan — published an interview with our CEO Ken Kobayashi in its series of interviews with the industry's leaders.
The series
The interview is part of HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy's 'Industry top interviews'. Its column 'The future innovators see' (vol. 115) talks to next-generation leaders who have a clear world of their own and are trying new things: what they do, the story behind it, and where they see the future going.
What it is about
The headline speaks of Assort's social media taking off with people from abroad, and of the brand growing with it. The article introduces Assort's hair salons in Tokyo, Osaka and abroad, and asks two questions: why Assort has such devoted fans in so many countries, and how it trains its team so that guests from abroad want to come back.
The interview covers Assort's salons abroad and the guests who travel to Japan, the social media Assort kept up day after day, its own way of training, and what comes next. The full interview, in Japanese, is on HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy; the link is below.
About HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy
HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy is run by Recruit. It gives beauty salons — hair, nail, esthetic, relaxation and eye-beauty salons — its own information and chances to learn, all free: video seminars on management and marketing, seminars and events, and stories of salons and of the industry's front runners.
Thank you to HOT PEPPER Beauty Academy, and to everyone who read the interview.
Written by Assort