Japan urged to end hair discrimination in schools, cut pupils some slack over 'too conservative' rules
More than 38,000 people have signed a petition in Japan demanding an end to discrimination against schoolchildren with hair that fails to meet narrowly defined standards of acceptability in the nation's schools.
The online petition, started in May by human-rights organisation Japan for Black Lives, calls for an end to discrimination against students because of their hair colour, texture or style; for inflexible school rules to be reviewed; and for school staff to undergo anti-discrimination workshops. It is nearing its target of 50,000 signatures.
Japan for Black Lives said it had received reports of numerous concerning incidents, including schools banning braided hair, students being obliged to submit a document stating that their hair colouring is natural and even teachers cutting students' hair in front of their classmates.
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A growing number of complaints and legal cases have been making headlines in Japan in recent years, often involving biracial and bicultural children whose hair colour and texture fail to match school guidelines.
A third-year student at a high school in Himeji, Hyogo prefecture, was banned from his graduation ceremony because his hair was in cornrows. The boy has a Japanese mother and an African-American father. When they questioned the school, the vice-principal reportedly said: "He should know the rules."
But the issue also affects children without mixed heritage. In Kobe, a 16-year-old girl with two ethnic Japanese parents developed an anxiety disorder and refused to go to school after a teacher "yanked" her hair in class because it was not the mandatory black shade. The girl said her hair had faded as a result of the chemicals in a pool where she was a regular swimmer and school authorities had previously confirmed that she did not need to follow the rules on hair colour.
Japanese schools have a reputation for being extremely strict, but a backlash against the rules is growing, with many people seeing them as petty and controlling.
"Of the first-year students that I teach, I guess that most have dyed hair or a style that would be impossible at high school and I believe they do that on purpose after being subject to these rules in school," said Makoto Watanabe, a professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Eniwa.
"Japanese schools are still much too conservative and they are clinging on to old values in a society that has completely changed," he said. "I cannot understand why they are insisting on everyone having the same black hair at the same time that they say they are open to globalisation and for more foreigners to live in Japan."
"Japanese schools are becoming closed little societies that do not embrace differences and fail to prepare their students for the world that they are going to encounter as soon as they leave," Watanabe added.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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