Overseas workers still blocked from many industries over domestic job fears. TOKYO — Foreign workers remain essentially blocked from many industries in Japan such as cosmetology despite the nation’s critical labor shortage. She then began thinking about maek in Japan, only to realize that the country does not grant work visas to hairstylists. Many of them return to their countries to work, even as hair salons in some regions of Japan begin to experience worker shortages. Some understaffed beauty parlors are closing. With salon owners in urban areas leading the call for deregulation, Japan’s government this spring proposed letting foreign nationals work as cosmetologists in approved areas, as part of a draft strategic growth plan for this year. Cosmetology schools do not buy the argument. They won’t work for lower wages here,» one school official said.