Japanese women's hairstyles track ups and downs of economy

Tokyo: Economic forecasters beware: Japanese women are cutting their hair again.

Women tend to wear their hair long when Japan's economy is doing well and short when there is a slump, the Nikkei business daily reported, citing a survey conducted by Japanese cosmetics company Kao Corp.

As for Japan's future economic performance, the business daily pointed to expectations for a trend towards shorter hairstyles.

This mirrors the view among some analysts that Japan's longest growth cycle since the Second World War may have ended and the economy is at risk of falling into a recession.

Kao, Japan's second-largest cosmetics firm, has conducted regular surveys of 1,000 women on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka over the past two decades, the paper said.

Until the early 1990s, when Japan's economic bubble burst, 60 per cent of women in their twenties kept their hair long, the paper said, citing the survey.

New factor

During the 1990s economic slump, short hair - defined as above the collarbone - became the dominant hairstyle for Jap-anese women.

But since 2002, long hair has regained some popularity - just as the economy started to expand, the paper said.

The business paper also identified a new factor that could affect the validity of hair length as an economic indicator: the rising popularity of the chignon.