Teachers at Toyama high school cut hair of 44 students to comply with rules

Yeah, that's called the military. Which is not really that different from most schools in Japan.

Yeah. That's the problem.

This happened to me many years ago. I made a number of charges with the local police.

Abduction, assault and illegal confinement. My teacher, the school principle were all convicted.

That would be much better than having to purchase an Armani suit for school...

OK... Why not make it simple, all student have to have the obligatory quarterly 9mm shaved hair cut at the local 1000 yen hair cut shop. This would be fair, for both Girls & Boys.

with the students' consent

Kids cannot give consent - only parents.

Nobody in Japan has issue with this situation

Then why is it in the news? And why is the BoE considering punishment?

Ugh. Leave those kids alone, teachers.

You missed a really good opportunity when writing that

Nobody in Japan has issue with this situation because they are told how to dress, think, behave, etc at their jobs.

The old Japanese "see no evil, hear no evil" until it's already become public knowledge and enough parents are complaining that you can't deny it... then deny it.

Only in Japan.

Teachers at a public high school in Toyama Prefecture have cut the hair of 44 students since April last year to make it short enough to meet school rules, the school and local education board said Friday.

Free haircuts! Lol

szero25Today  07:42 am JST

Really? Would you be happy if your workplace told you exactly how your facial features should look and came and measured your trouser length everyday?

Yeah, that's called the military. Which is not really that different from most schools in Japan.

Japanese students should learn how to defend themselves and be vocal on human rights. Their parents should hire a lawyer and sue those teachers for human rights violation.

I'd like to see these teachers named. That's all, should be enough.

Actually agree with you on this it prepares the students for the real world where dress standards are upheld

Real world? No. Real Japanese office for a salaryman with a wrinkled, ill-fitting navy suit from Aoki. Yeah.

For those working for the highest-paying, most successful companies in the world, such as Apple, Google, Facebook, etc, there is no dress code. This even goes for their office in Japan. Costco Japan, too.

> Before all the Social Justice Warriors start commenting and voting down, I've worked at employers where staff have been sent home for failing to meet the minimum dress standards, it was a condition of employment no different than the condition of attendance and schooling in these cases.

It has nothing to do with being a "SJW". I'm sure dress codes at work were a big thing back in your day at your undoubtedly exciting and emotionally fulfilling job. I've had sucky jobs like that too, when I was young. But, today, that crap don't fly, unless you work in certain fields in certain geographies.

If consent was given then I fail to see what the teachers have done.

Yeah. I'm sure it was voluntary. Like going out drinking with one's co-workers is "voluntary". Or, not taking all of your vacation days is "voluntary".

Did a short stint as an ALT, my mistake I know. Was told no deodorant in summer, no blowing your nose in winter. But it's Ok to sleep at your desk. The rules were ridiculous I bought my own lunch that's not on. When I pointed out that the clean up music was on tape and too short requiring a rewind or too. I was told change would require too many meetings and they had done it for 35 years. Students fainting in the heat and being yelled at. A friend visited me and was so suprised at the plethora of prisons, had to inform him they are schools! Think we can agree a drastic overhaul of education, teacher training is 50 years overdue.

I went to high school in the early-mid 70's. There was a school uniform, which was not too strictly enforced. However, it was the 70's and just about everybody had long hair. The teacher also used a cane for punishment of unruly boys. I had 'six of the best' a few times, but never because I had long hair or for 'modified' uniform standards. The thing Japanese school fail to acknowledge is, the more they try to control teenagers, the less control they actually have.

Sounds like 44 lawsuits waiting in the wind...

'@bullfighter. Wow! Thanks. My image of American schools was dyed blond hair, mustang convertibles and straight shiny white teeth. I am so glad your kids can grow up in japan, especially with all the Olympic boom.

@DaDude, i'm surprised to read so many comments about restrictions in high schools, something i was not aware of. I'm 35 so my high school time was in the late 90s. My school literally had no restriction at all. I remember classmates with blue, pink... hairs. No dress code either. Almost 20 years on now and some of the "craziest" people are the ones who made the most successful career. I'm Italian btw.

You mean in Japan or other countries as well?

All countries.

JanuszBToday 07:07 am JST

Very good. Much much better than rules in shambles as at most schoold in US and Europe.

Actually agree with you on this it prepares the students for the real world where dress standards are upheld

Before all the Social Justice Warriors start commenting and voting down, I've worked at employers where staff have been sent home for failing to meet the minimum dress standards, it was a condition of employment no different than the condition of attendance and schooling in these cases.

Teachers at a public high school in Toyama Prefecture have cut the hair of 44 students - Mizuhashi High School said were given with the students' consent,

If consent was given then I fail to see what the teachers have done.

Ugh. Leave those kids alone, teachers.

I could write a book about my school experiences, back in the day, back in my country. Still chokes me all up, all these years later.

Anyway, it's unfair what these kids endured and the school was wrong to lay a finger on their hair.

I have to wonder where people commenting on this article went to school. My high school experience was early 1960s in a Chicago area public school. It really was like a prison camp. You needed to have a signed pass to take a dump. There were monitors spaced throughout the building to check your pass. Minor infractions were met with "nights" - after school detention under the supervision of a bullying coach who made my Army ROTC instructors look kind and friendly.

I remember kids being sent home for infractions such as walking around with their shirt tail hanging out or having too much facial hair.

Further, friends who attended church operated schools (very important in the Chicago area at that time) told me that we had it easy compared to what they dealt with.

And then there were the armed cops we had in the building when there was the possibility that there might be a rumble between blacks and whites.

Presumably there are very strict schools in Japan but the Tokyo middle and high schools (both public) that my kids attend are Club Med compared to what I experienced.

I don't think my experiences were unique and they did not produce a nation of conformist clones.

As I am not an expert on this topic, can people here please tell me the dress code and hair code of their high school?

You mean in Japan or other countries as well?

Teachers should look a little deeper into their responsibilities as educators, like beneath the hairline where the brain is located, and concern themselves not with cookie-cutter concepts of teaching to box-ticking tests, but more with the intellectual and emotional development of their charges. Japanese teachers also need to grow a pair in order to represent the interests of their pupils by taking a stand against the brainless conformity of bureaucratic regulations concocted by control-freak administrators. Clearly, Japanese education could be vastly improved if philosophy were included as a staple of the curriculum. Thinking outside the box as an integral part of a child's developmental needs has been sorely neglected for far too long. Time is running out for the Japanese as the future is rushing towards them like an express train roaring out of a tunnel.

As I am not an expert on this topic, can people here please tell me the dress code and hair code of their high school? When I was there in the 90s, hair dye, baggy clothes, and certain colors of clothes were prohibited. Football players had to keep their hair under 1 inch or the coach would break out the razor. None of this made national headlines.

if it finds it necessary?? What the hell is THAT supposed to mean??

It means they're gonna go into countless of pointless meeting, talk and think about it for heck long periods of time, to then decide what they were going to do. Which is probably going to be a slap on the hand.

Somewhere along the line Japanese schools have got education confused with incarceration. No doubt the hair cuts the boys in the article were given was #1 blade buzz cut, standard prison issue. The article also forgets to mention that some schools still cut boys' hair as a form of punishment.

At some schools, the ban on makeup includes sunscreen.

I don't think anyone wants Japan to become a litigious society, but if sueing is the only way to force change, we can only cheer on people like those filing suits about forced hair dying. It worked with human pyramids.

My son is nine and has his hair past his eyes. My daughter whose 12 does too. They both get grief, but mostly from the coaches at their sports teams.

adding the board will punish those involved if it finds it necessary.

if it finds it necessary?? What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?? IT IS necessary you idiot!

Apart from the shogi champ, all the other types of people are perhaps the most conformist people of all in Japanese society. Much of what they are paid for is to be on TV panels showing the 'correct' reaction to whatever is being broadcast.

Case in point against this.....AKB48 and ALL the other teenie-bop idols that prance around half naked with dyed hair, and make up put on with a trowel!

I find it ironic that almost 100% of schools have a no dying policy yet they demand that brown haired students dye their hair black. It was heartbreaking to see my daughters damage their hair with black dyes which totally did not match their natural skin tones.

Forced hair dying rules and breaking their own rules is like capital punishment for murder.

Unless you become "geinojin" a "shogi" champ, or some other "celeb" or "idol" and then everyone that "knows" you can brag about knowing you!

Yubaru - Apart from the shogi champ, all the other types of people are perhaps the most conformist people of all in Japanese society. Much of what they are paid for is to be on TV panels showing the 'correct' reaction to whatever is being broadcast.

Students are expected to keep their fringe above their eyebrows

The local KNB website carries a photo of a boy and girl, the managers of the school's football team, with an article praising them for their work with holds the team together. Presumably the school provided the photo and the admiring spiel. The girl has a fringe that falls well below her eyebrows.

http://www.knb.ne.jp/announcer/blog6/detail/?sid=493

Hypocrites.

The teen years are a time when kids want to experiment, rebel (by conforming to their peers...), make mistakes. Long hair, short hair, coloured hair, is all temporary and totally harmless. When I was a teen my hair was all colours of the rainbow. Didn't affect my grades one bit. My parents would have hit the roof if the school had tried to do anything with my hair.

Leave the kids' hair alone, let them do what they like with it.

Sue them.

Then cut -their- hair!

 but conformity is highly prized here.

Unless you become "geinojin" a "shogi" champ, or some other "celeb" or "idol" and then everyone that "knows" you can brag about knowing you!

Sounds ridiculous in this day and age, but conformity is highly prized here.

This highschool probably now has the nations worst hairstyles.

Seems to me though to be overstepping personal boundaries to cut someones hair. Time for a rule change? No this will still be an issue in 2028 here.

Very good. Much much better than rules in shambles as at most schoold in US and Europe.

Really? Would you be happy if your workplace told you exactly how your facial features should look and came and measured your trouser length everyday?

I often feel like schhols in Japan are operated more like penial camps then schools.

Also i fail to see how drilling conformity does anything but promote closed and narrow mindedness and make anyone who's different feel excluded and not wanted.

Schools in Japan are not without problem students either, often the system just gives up on them and bunches them together in less prestigious High Schools and lets them essentially give up on their education.

Japan doesn't want to make independent and strong thinkers just obedient bucket heads.

Come to Japan but leave your creativity and personality at the door please.

Very good. Much much better than rules in shambles as at most schoold in US and Europe.

What difference does it make if a HS kid has long hair, short hair, dyed hair, or whatever? I mean how in the world does how they look affect what they are learning or thinking?

Private school....ok I get it, public? These so called educators are more interested in conformity than anything else, and they could give a crap about their students once they leave HS. All they care about is how these kids look as it somehow reflects poorly on them! That's BULLSNIT too!

Very good. Much much better than rules in shambles as at most schoold in US and Europe.

The case came to light after the school was informed by people outside the school and questioned all of its teachers earlier this month.

Like gimmie a break here. 6 teachers coorced all 44 of these students into allowing them to cut their hair and the rest of the school's teachers/administration didn't know about it until some "outsider" told them?