Manga creator Masayuki Ishikawa is best known for his series "Moyashimon." Also known as "Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture," the story follows a freshman at an agricultural university who has the ability to communicate with microorganisms, all of which are rendered as cute Pokemon-like characters.
With its scientific references and in-jokes, Moyashimon is considered a treat for the intellectual anime/manga fan. Right now, though, it’s Ishikawa’s comments on school uniform dress codes, and their unfair treatment of female students, that the Japanese internet is seeing shining intelligence in.
Ishikawa, who has a high school-age daughter of his own, recently tweeted his thoughts about the school rules she has to deal with.
“I used too think high school girls were really tough, what with how they walk around with bare legs [in the winter], but the rules at the school my daughter attends include that the only leg coverings they’re allowed to wear [other than their skirt] are the socks specified by the school. If they wear anything more than that, they get yelled at by the teachers, who are all bundled up in tights, [Uniqlo] Heat-Tech, and other lined inner wear. If those adults had to walk around outside for even two seconds wearing just a pleated skirt and socks, they’d be completely wrecked! Why don’t men understand?”
Setting aside the issue of whether or not such school policies are put in place only by male administrators, Ishikawa raises some valid points. While many schools in Japan have dress codes that severely limit students’ options for guarding themselves against the cold, the teachers and administrators enforcing those policies are generally free to use whatever innerwear they wish in order to feel more comfortable. Some schools rationalize having no-tights rules for students by saying that being too warm and cozy will make it harder for students to concentrate, but if that’s true, shouldn’t they also be worried about that phenomenon dulling teachers’ mental sharpness while they’re at work too?
Ishikawa isn’t alone in his frustration, as evidenced by the 30,000-plus likes his tweet has racked up along with comments such as:
“They should start making teachers wear uniforms too!”
“Yeah! Uniforms with sort pants!”
“One of my classmates got hives on her legs because of how cold they were.”
“When I was in high school, I made sure to wear beige skin-colored tights, and my homeroom teacher, who was a guy, never noticed.”
“We weren’t allowed to wear a second layer of socks [underneath the school-mandated ones] at my school either.”
“This morning, I saw a high school girl walking in the cold with her legs bare…I felt so sorry for her.”
Thankfully, some commenters showed that not every school is as strict as Ishikawa’s daughter’s.
“So there are still old-fashioned schools out there. 24 years ago the female students at my school kept giving presentations [about changing the dress code], and they convinced the school to let us wear tights and longer socks.”
“The junior high school in my neighborhood now has a rule requiring female students to wear tights in winter [in order to keep warm]…on the recommendation of the school nurse. I think it’s a rare example, though.”
“Aside from gender issues, I think this is another reason more schools are allowing female students to choose to wear slacks as part of their uniform.”
“Recently, I think some schools are changing their attitude and trying to base their rules on more logical ideas.”
Hopefully Ishikawa daughter’s school will reevaluate its no-tights rule in the near future. With most school rule changes being implemented at the start of the Japanese academic year, which takes place in April, though, it looks like this winter is still going to be a cold one for her.
Source: Twitter/@isk_ms via Jin
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japanese schoolgirl points out an especially dumb part of her school’s “no tights” dress code
-- Petition to allow students to choose what they wear to school gathers almost 19,000 signatures
-- Public schools in Japan’s Saga Prefecture will no longer regulate/check students’ underwear color
© SoraNews24
24 Comments
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lordoflys
That Japan Public Schools in some areas regularly check students underwear for color violations is beyond nuts and borders on sexual deviancy.....as does requiring female students to wear skirts in cold weather. The old men that dream up these rulings obviously read too much racy manga in their "spare" time. I'm surprised that female lawmakers haven't called this spade a spade.
bobcatfish
This is my school girl uniform. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
KanseiConsortium
I hate that we have come to the point where tradition is put before the safety and concerns of human lives.
Aly Rustom
disgusting. not only fetishizing the HS girls but making them suffer in the winter.
“One of my classmates got hives on her legs because of how cold they were.”
Seriously?? Seriously??
Hear! Hear!
YeahRight
The private high school that I teach at is quite lenient. We live in Iwate, which can get pretty cold in the winter and pretty hot and humid in the summer. There is a uniform, of course, but girls have the option to wear slacks or tights. There has even been talk of allowing guys to wear skirts, though I can't imagine many would do so. In summer, the students are often allowed to change into their undogi with shorts, though they are supposed to wear the uniform when going to and returning from school. Plus, we got air conditioners in all the rooms. I have only said something to a student once in my 15 years plus here about his uniform because he was wearing his pants around his ankles with his undogi shorts on. That was too much. I told him he could take off the pants or pull them up, but having them around his ankles was just too weird. I have never commented to a girl for fear of being considered a pervert, though I have seen many "violations" of the uniform rule. I get the impression that there are only a few teachers here that say much of anything about it.
Ricky Kaminski13
“Never, I repeat ever, question the rules.” In fact, don’t question anything.
Thanks. J education system.
Mr Kipling
This is Japan, tradition ALWAYS trumps common sense.
rainyday
Yet the article and the comments both provide numerous examples of common sense trumping idiotic tradition at schools which have ditched these stupid overly strict dress codes. So clearly common sense sometimes does prevail.
David K Anderson
They understand perfectly well. They just place being able to ogle underage girls' legs over the health and safety of those girls.
PerformingMonkey
That's not how the tweet ends. Translate it properly, please.
1glenn
Only about 10% of lower house members in Japan are women. It is no guarantee, but if there were more women in government, they might be able to do something about the HS dress codes. I am not against dress codes as such, only ones that don't make much sense.
Bronco
Ohh "the internet" has spoken and told us what the approved opinion is.
Isn't it female teachers setting the dress code anyways?
garypen
Why didn't you, as long as you were posting?
tora
Why don’t men understand?”
I thought the same! But ChatGBT says differently:
I thought JK was tough and had guts because of their bare feet, but my daughter's school has strict rules and she can only wear specified socks. There's nothing she can do about it because she gets scolded by the teacher who wears tights, heattech, and fuzzy socks to keep her whole body warm. If an adult walks outside with just a flimsy pair of socks, they'll fall apart in two seconds! Why don't men understand this? It's a criticism based on practical experience! (ChatGBT, 2023).
starpunk
In the US parochial schools even plant their short-skirted girls as decoys to nail the perv suspects who give them rides. It's twisted, warped and disgusting. Hate to say it but American culture is perverted and sick. 'Beauty pageants'/Jon Bon Ramsey, father-daughter dances in elementary school gyms, and then there's DEE-Jay-Tee. It's exploitative and it's revolting. .
And if people can't tell males from females then that's their problem. This ain't the 50's anymore. We have women's jeans made just for them.
Sounds like the teacher is being a hypocrite. Do as I say, not as I do.
That's gross, sick and grody to the max. That is NOTHING short of a violation to satisfy some pervert. Before the pandemic there have been women's marches and the 'MeToo/Time's Up' movement greatly (but not entirely) sparked by Caligula we call Donald Trump. But it goes deep down even further. It's 2023, folks. The older 'traditional' ways for nearly everything in this modern life don't work anymore. It's time for a change.
wallace
The uniform codes are set by the education boards. All female students should be allowed to wear pants or skirts and tights.
cleo
When my daughter was in high school the main problem was that the girls themselves would insist on rolling up the waistbands of their skirts to make them as short as possible, at the same time pushing their knee socks down to ankle level. Worn as officially envisaged, the skirt came down past the knees and there should have been no bare leg showing at all, and any girl who wanted to wear tights for extra warmth could do so without any teacher being any the wiser.
But the girls wanted to wear short skirts, and some parents even expressed the opinion that the skirts should be shorter so that their daughters didn't 'have to' roll them up.
purple_depressed_bacon
If the school boards had any iota of sense and logic bouncing around in their empty heads, they would have implemented a summer and winter uniform - this means allowing boys to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts in humid summers and girls to wear slacks or tights/leggings in winter. Honestly, every time I read about the lunacy that surrounds school uniforms in Japan, it always manages to reach a new level of ridiculous nonsense.
Nadrew
How about the young boys in those ridiculous shirt shorts?
Nadrew
Short shorts
that person
@starpunk,
what’s wrong with father daughter dances?
kohakuebisu
Further to cleo's point, our eldest goes to a senior high without a school uniform. She's going to Disneyland this month and both her and her best mate have bought fancy dress school uniforms on Mercari to wear when they go. The skirt is tartan and is really short, so I told her to not wear it on the Tokyo subway. Anyway this is two girls without a uniform cosplaying as regular high schoolers who wear one. Its easy to look at school uniforms and be critical but some people do like em.
starpunk
You take a lover/mare/date/whatever to a dance - esp. when it's held in a school gym. NOT a relative. That's incestuous and just plain SICK. And so are those so-called 'chastity balls'. Blasphemous!
You know there's a fetish for that, don't you? There is one in America, have no doubt about it. It's time for girls to wear what they want to - like women's jeans. Welcome to 2023.