Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 December 20 - 2018 January 9 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Project launched to redress irrational school rules

Critics, LGBT activists, and anti-bullying NGO representatives on December 14 launched a project to eliminate absurd school regulations and restrictive student guidance practices.

One of the project founders and radio personality Ogiue Chiki said, "We'd like to change the way of thinking dominated by irrational school rules with students, teachers, and educational administrators working together."

The newly-set up project is now collecting examples of ridiculous school rules on Twitter which include: the length of school uniform skirts must be below the knees; underwear must be all white and teachers sometimes check by flipping up uniform skirts; using a fan no matter how hot is prohibited; and speaking is not allowed at lunchtime until everyone is ready to eat.

Ogiue pointed out that to redress the nonsensical school rules to ones respecting individual human rights "will also help relieve teachers from having to enforce such rules and regulations".

The Democratic Youth League of Japan (DYLJ) is also interviewing high school students in front of train stations closest to each school to ask about unfair rules and guidance practices. The DYLJ said it will publish survey results in March at the end of the school year.

The voting age is now 18. However, some schools ban their students from participating in political activities. A student fearfully responded to the DYLJ questionnaires on the street, saying, "Won't I be punished for this?" Another student said his hair is naturally wavy and that teachers did not let him in on his first day because he did not have a certificate proving he has natural curls.

On December 5, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Kira Yoshiko took up the issue of illogical school rules in the House committee on education, citing the recent example of a female student in an Osaka public high school who was forced to dye her naturally-brown hair black. Kira at a committee meeting said, "Teachers should not use school rules to discourage students from coming to school," and demanded that student guidance attaches importance on individual personality and respects their individuality.

Past related article:
> Forced dark-dying hair at school violates human rights: JCP Kira [ December 6 & 10, 2017]