There's a unique hair salon in the village of Kasamatsu in Gifu Prefecture where inmates at the women's prison work as hairstylists as part of a rehabilitation project that aims to equip them with marketable skills for when they rejoin society.

"It is a precious opportunity for inmates to make contact with society. It can also be instrumental for people in the community to feel an affinity with the prison," a senior official at the prison said.

"Let's make it so the side is longer than the back," a female prisoner and stylist in her 50s said during a discussion with a female customer.