The chic, antique-filled interior of his store, the soft jazz playing in the background and Yuya Hasegawa's fancy suit are all there to serve a single purpose: to boost the esteem of his job.
Hasegawa, 24, shines shoes. With his easy-going charm and relentless pursuit for perfection, he aspires to raise his calling to an art.
As CEO of Boot Black Japan, the company he founded in 2007, Hasegawa opened his store Brift H in the ritzy Aoyama district of Tokyo last July — a feat he describes as a rarity in a trade mostly comprised of free-lancers working the streets.