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216 retained regulations that an increasing number of people in education — including the children themselves — say are outdated.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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including