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Dumb Japanese school dress codes

12 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Japanese schools don’t have the best reputation for flexibility regarding student conduct regulations, or even all that much common sense in the formation of the rules to begin with. In a year with circumstances as unusual as 2020, that presents a lot of potential problems, and it looks like one school in Kyushu has dropped the ball pretty badly.

In talking with newspaper Nishi Nippon Shimbun, a mother shared her frustrations about the municipal junior high school her daughter attends in Fukuoka City. As part of the school’s coronavirus precautions, classroom windows are being left open during lessons, in order to keep them ventilated and lower the chance of infection. In and of itself, that seems like a wise decision, but the high in Fukuoka this week is only about 13 degrees Celsius with a low of around 5 degrees, and things are only going to get colder until spring comes.

In the meantime, the open-window policy means students are basically spending the day in outdoor-level coldness, but while still being required to wear their school uniforms, which aren’t designed with warmth as a major priority, especially the girls’ version, which has a skirt. So can they at least bundle up during class? Nope. The school’s dress code allows for only the addition of a specific sweater or cardigan designated by the school as part of the uniform. Want to wear a heavier sweatshirt, or maybe a high-necked undershirt to keep the draft off your neck? Sorry, not allowed. Oh, and if you walked to school wearing gloves or a scarf, you’re required to take them off in the school’s entryway, please, and keep them off until you leave at the end of the day. No wearing them during class time.

While the potential discomfort and health risks of keeping the windows open all day can be arguably justified as a coronavirus countermeasure, there doesn’t seem to be any rationale for the “no extra warm clothing” rule other than an unwillingness to rethink the pre-existing dress code, even while adding the open-windows-in-winter protocol.

Making the situation especially aggravating is that Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has specifically asked schools to consider relaxing their dress codes this winter due to drops in classroom temperatures caused by increased ventilation requirements. However, the ultimate decision on whether to allow students to wear warmer, non-regulation articles of clothing is being left up to individual schools, leaving the door open to situations like the one the upset mother and daughter now find themselves in.

Considering that Japanese schools can be uncomfortably cold for uniform-wearing students even with the windows closed, here’s hoping that the daughter’s school eventually comes around on the matter, especially since neighboring Saga Prefecture seems to be taking a more enlightened stance on dress codes by no longer checking what color bra schoolgirls are wearing.

Source: Nishi Nippon Shimbun via Yahoo! Japan News via Hachima Kiko

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Japanese schoolgirl points out an especially dumb part of her school’s “no tights” dress code

-- Japanese middle school criticized for pulling out girls’ bra straps to check their color

-- No more miniskirts? Changes happening in Japanese schoolgirl uniform fashion trends

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

12 Comments
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One of the schools I used to work at had temperatures hit -5 degrees in winter so the teachers used to let the kids wear jackets and trench coats over their uniforms in the hallways or anywhere outside the classroom. The school had an awesome principal and teachers.

If I were a parent of one of these kids at this Fukuoka school, I'd encourage my kid to wear a turtleneck or or other warm clothing anyway.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@kniknaknollaer,

Maybe you should go back to school and sit in one of those classrooms. Might help with your reading and comprehension. If its a female student wearing a skirt, what is she to wear underneath that is authorized by the school but also allows her to stay warm and able to concentrate on her studies? Common sense isn't too common nowadays. Students should not have to sit in freezing classrooms because some idiot makes a bad call.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Absolutely cruel to make girls wear skirts and young boys wear shorts in the dead middle of winter.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The school in question issued guidelines regarding winter wear on 2 November. On 3 December, the Education Ministry updated its manual to reflect the unique situation faced by students and their schools this winter season. Stressed in the new guidelines is flexibility regarding room ventilation and uniform codes. Since early December, education authorities throughout Kyushu, from the prefectural to the municipal level, have been implementing this more flexible approach. See here: 教室で防寒着ダメ?コロナ対策で真冬も窓全開…凍える生徒(西日本新聞) - Yahoo!ニュース

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Making schoolchildren wear the same clothes, the same hair style, say the same things (ritual greetings) is all part of the plan to suppress the individual and individual thought.

What passes for education in Japan is mind control.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Warm underwear, there are those ones with heattech fibres, next warmer sweaters or even a coat, and if there is still resistance from those beasts, then a strike or as a last resort calling police, showing them the temperature and physical abuse accompanied with a lawsuit and charges of attempted bodily harms. It is surely at least possible to show those idiots some limits legally instead of giving in and let the children be tortured by such inhuman monsters.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Making schoolchildren wear the same clothes, the same hair style, say the same things (ritual greetings) is all part of the plan to suppress the individual and individual thought.

My three grown kids, born and raised here, each a fully developed individual, will appreciate the foreigner-splaining. Thanks for that.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Typical JT post catering to foreigners' preconceived notions regarding Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Mr. Baseel true to form, bit of the plausible, but way wide of the mark.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

One extreme example is all they came up with?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Pukey2Dec. 30, 2020  05:10 pm JST

Absolutely cruel to make girls wear skirts and young boys wear shorts in the dead middle of winter.

> BertieWoosterDec. 30, 2020  07:32 pm JST

Making schoolchildren wear the same clothes, the same hair style, say the same things (ritual greetings) is all part of the plan to suppress the individual and individual thought.

What passes for education in Japan is mind control.

Yes. Communist nations do this. So do fascist ones. It's time for Japan, the USA and everyone to embrace the 21st century. Conformity is UNFIT for a democracy.

>

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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