‘Welfare Nail Services’ for Elderly and Disabled Growing in Japan

From Jiji

June 20 2024

SAPPORO – Japan is seeing a spread of so-called welfare nail services, or nail stylists dispatched to welfare and other facilities giving manicures to elderly or disabled people. 

The number of certified providers of such services, known as “welfare nailists,” has grown 3.5-fold over years, according to a training organization.

Such treatments have been received well, with staff workers at elderly care facilities saying that the services bring joy to residents.

Welfare nail services are believed to have begun in 2012, when Yukari Araki, who was operating a nail salon, offered her service at a nursing home for elderly people.

After receiving a flurry of requests for treatments, Araki founded the Japan Health Welfare Nailist Association with the aim of spreading the service. According to the association, based in the city of Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, there are 2,332 welfare nailists certified by the organization as of May this year, up from 668 in 2019.