It’s really cold across Japan right now. However, thanks to archaic rules, some school students in primary and secondary education can’t bundle up to stay warm. The ridiculous policies have social justice advocates once again calling on Japanese schools to reconsider overly strict regulations.
Shueisha reports that some Japanese parents are complaining online about overly strict rules regarding what students can and can’t wear. Some schools across the country forbid wearing sensible winter apparel even as temperatures drop below freezing.
Parents have reported that students can’t wear either down jackets or scarves to class. In one extreme case, a school forbids wearing both overshoes and socks.
Some schools also ban girls from wearing tights to keep their legs warm. One school allows students to wear socks (that’s nice of them) but regulates the length to 15 centimeters. That means that Heisei retro-style loose socks are verboten.
When pressed on why these regulations exist, some school officials say it’s to keep everyone equal. That prevents student clothing from turning into a fashion contest that privileges students from well-off families. However, as a practical matter, this means that some students have to walk 40 minutes or more in the freezing cold with little protection.
Calling for an end to “harsh” regulations
This problem also impacts students in the summer. I wrote a while back about schools that forbid students from wearing sunscreen despite scorching temps, as well as preventing students from bringing water to class.
Strict regulations aren’t just seasonal, either. We’ve written before about schools that regulate hair color – a regulation that’s forced some kids of mixed ancestry to dye their hair black. Regulations against curls or perms have also forced some students to straighten their naturally curly hair. A gyaru model in Japan has talked about having to take classes separately from her classmates because of the purple hair she sports for work.
The organization Stop Black Kosoku (ブラック校則をなくそう; burakku kousoku nakusou) tracks these so-called “black,” or strict, regulations and advocates for dismantling them. Founder Sunaga Yuji says that regulations such as the one banning down jackets continue to exist as a matter of habit.
“School employees have told me they’re afraid to dismantle old rules,” Sunaga said, “even when the people who made them are no longer there.”
Some regulations, however, are actually based on something approximating logic. For example, some schools forbid scarves because they can get caught in bicycle wheels, making them a safety hazard.
Strict regulations are becoming a factor in a growing problem in Japan: nonattendance. More students than ever are saying they don’t want to attend school at all. A survey by the country’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) shows 7.8% of middle school students citing strict school rules as a reason to stop attending.
Pressure from news stories and complaints from younger teachers who hate enforcing nonsensical rules are two common paths to changing school regulations. Sunaga urges school boards to revisit their existing regulations to determine which ones have a logical argument behind them versus which ones are outdated legacies.
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