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Tokyo faculties drop controversial gown code on hair and underwear colour

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For many years, being a pupil in Tokyo meant you needed to look a sure means. Beneath the general public faculty 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 delegated colour.

However these guidelines, which have not too long ago come beneath scrutiny and been criticized as outdated, will now be abolished, town’s authorities introduced this week.

A complete of 5 guidelines might be dropped by practically 200 public faculties throughout the Japanese capital, together with laws on hair and underwear colour, 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 international locations.

Different guidelines being minimize 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 adjustments go into impact initially of the brand new tutorial 12 months on April 1. The transfer got here after Tokyo’s board of schooling carried out a survey final 12 months that requested faculties, college students and oldsters about their views on the insurance policies.

Tokyo is not the one Japanese metropolis with a strict gown code — related guidelines are in impact across the nation, with many faculties requiring college students to put on sneakers and socks of a delegated colour.

Faculties 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 keeping with Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

Like Tokyo, Fukuoka carried out a public survey final 12 months, wherein college students complained that the gown code brought about them stress and restricted their self-expression, Asahi reported.

The problem was thrust into the highlight in 2017 when a highschool pupil in Osaka prefecture sued her faculty, 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 instructed to re-dye it each time her brown roots grew again, according to Asahi. She was finally given tutorial penalties for not dyeing it typically sufficient.

Her lawsuit complained that the frequent coloring had broken her hair and scalp, and brought about her psychological misery. Final 12 months, she received 330,000 yen (about $2,790) in damages.

Different college students and households have since spoken out with related complaints, whereas a number of faculties have introduced adjustments to their gown codes.

This spring, a college in Ube, Yamaguchi prefecture, will change 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 significant break from the strictly gendered gown codes nonetheless widespread in Japan.

This text was up to date to make clear that April 1 is the beginning of a brand new tutorial 12 months and that Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese newspaper.

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