Controversial rules on hairstyles and underwear are to be scrapped at high schools run by the Tokyo City Government, after pressure from students.
Almost 200 public high schools and other educational institutions are to drop five regulations, including one requiring students to have black hair, from next month, the Mainichi Shimbun reported, citing official sources.
The newspaper said that rules designating the color of students’ underwear and a ban on the “two block” hairstyle — short at the back and sides and longer on top — are also to be dropped.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The move comes after a survey conducted last year of 240 schools in the capital found that 216 retained regulations that an increasing number of people in education — including the children themselves — say are outdated.
However, some of the rules are to stay at certain schools. While some are to abolish a requirement for students to show proof that their hair is naturally curly or a color other than black, some are to keep the regulation, reportedly at the request of students and parents.
Tokyo Board of Education member Yuto Kitamura said the decision to scrap the most egregious regulations is a “major step forward,” the Mainichi reported.
Another member, Kaori Yamaguchi, praised the move, but said that it had taken too long to address students’ grievances.
“Japanese people have been taught to believe that it is a virtue to simply abide by the rules,” she said. “I hope this will be an opportunity for people to discuss what we should do to create a society where rules are observed in a way that’s acceptable to everyone.”
The debate over strict dress codes intensified several years ago after a high-school student, then aged 18, sued education authorities in Osaka after her school had told her to dye her naturally brown hair black or face expulsion.
Last year, the Osaka District Court rejected her claim that she had been forced to dye her hair, but said that the removal of her desk and name from the roster after she stopped attending classes had been unreasonable.
It ordered the Osaka Board of Education to pay her ￥330,000 (US$2,548) in compensation.
Last year, all public high schools in Mie, a prefecture in western Japan, abolished rules governing hairstyles, underwear color and dating, with local officials conceding that the requirements were “relics” from a different age.
Some schools had told students that they must wear undershirts in beige, mocha or other colors that were not easily visible beneath their uniforms, while only “monotone white, gray, navy blue or black” underwear were permissible.
Some students have successfully campaigned for girls to be allowed to wear trousers to school, while others have called for the lifting of bans on makeup and hair products.
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