For many years, being a scholar in Tokyo meant you needed to look a sure approach. Under the general public college system’s gown code, all college students needed to dye their hair black, sure hairstyles had been prohibited and even their underwear needed to be a chosen shade.
But these guidelines, which have just lately come underneath scrutiny and been criticized as outdated, will now be abolished, the town’s authorities introduced this week.
A complete of 5 guidelines will likely be dropped by almost 200 public faculties throughout the Japanese capital, together with laws on hair and underwear shade, and a ban on “two block” hairstyles, that are lengthy on high and quick on the again and sides — a method at present in vogue in lots of nations.
Other guidelines being reduce embody the observe of punishing college students with a type of home arrest, and ambiguous language within the tips on what is taken into account “typical of highschool college students.”
The coverage modifications go into impact at the beginning of the brand new educational yr on April 1. The transfer got here after Tokyo’s board of training performed a survey final yr that requested faculties, college students and fogeys about their views on the insurance policies.
Tokyo is not the one Japanese metropolis with a strict gown code — comparable guidelines are in impact across the nation, with many faculties requiring college students to put on footwear and socks of a chosen shade.
Schools in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu, even have guidelines proscribing college students’ hairstyles and dictating each the colour and sample of their underwear, in accordance with Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
Like Tokyo, Fukuoka performed a public survey final yr, during which college students complained that the gown code brought on them stress and restricted their self-expression, Asahi reported.
The challenge was thrust into the highlight in 2017 when a highschool scholar in Osaka prefecture sued her college, a case that attracted nationwide consideration and prompted widespread public debate on restrictive gown codes.
She alleged that she had been pressured to dye her naturally brown hair black when she first joined the varsity, and was informed to re-dye it each time her brown roots grew again, in accordance with Asahi. She was ultimately given educational penalties for not dyeing it usually sufficient.
Her lawsuit complained that the frequent coloring had broken her hair and scalp, and brought on her psychological misery. Last yr, she received 330,000 yen (about $2,790) in damages.
Other college students and households have since spoken out with comparable complaints, whereas a number of faculties have introduced modifications to their gown codes.
This spring, a college in Ube, Yamaguchi prefecture, will develop into the primary within the metropolis to introduce a “genderless” uniform, with college students of all genders given a alternative between slacks and skirts, Asahi reported — a serious break from the strictly gendered gown codes nonetheless widespread in Japan.
This article was up to date to make clear that April 1 is the beginning of a brand new educational yr and that Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese newspaper.