What is behind Japan's notoriously strict rules on student hairstyles?

A court case and a highly critical newspaper article on the same day recently put a spotlight on the strict rules governing Japanese high school students' hair styles.

A 20-year-old man in southern Japan has said he will appeal a court's refusal to award him a symbolic 1-yen compensation for hazing he claimed took place while he was a student at Seiseiko High School in the city of Kumamoto.

The man, who has not been named, told the court that he developed depression and dropped out of the school after he was forced to shave his head on the grounds that it was a "tradition" in a school sports club he joined in 2017. 

On the same day, the Mainichi newspaper reported that a teacher had "yanked" the hair of a 16-year-old girl after reprimanding her that it was not the regulation black required for all students at a high school in Kobe.

The girl told the newspaper that her hair had faded slightly to a dark brown as a result of the chemicals at a pool where she was a regular swimmer and that school authorities had previously confirmed that she did not need to follow the regulations on hair color.

The girl has since been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and has missed two weeks of classes.

Strict rules for students

Japanese schools have long been notorious for strict rules on attire and appearance, which, in some cases, even apply to the color of students' underwear.

In recent years, there has been a backlash against the regulations, which more and more people consider to be petty and overly restrictive, leading to many schools gradually relaxing some rules.

But many rules remain, and critics say they are an unwanted hangover from another era.

"I would say that the majority of the first-year students in my university have dyed or colored hair," said Makoto Watanabe, a professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Sapporo. "And I would suggest that is a conscious act of defiance after they have been subject to such stringent rules all through their school career."

"Schools are still far too conservative and they are hanging on to old values in a society that has completely changed," he told DW.

"And it is simply crazy that they are still insisting that everyone has straight black hair at the same time the government is calling for increased globalization and while more foreigners live in Japan."

Watanabe said he had believed that due to persistent coverage of some of the outdated and contradictory regulations, schools were beginning to ease up on some of the particularly unnecessary rules.

For example, one school forbade pupils to dye their hair but then ordered one student with naturally dark brown hair to dye it black.

What is keeping the rules in place?

Given these latest cases, however, Watanabe said is not so sure that the strict rules will change any time soon.

"I am reaching the conclusion that Japan's schools are almost closed societies that have very little to do with the outside world and their naturally conservative tendencies make it impossible for them to open up or accept that the world is changing," he said.

Emi Izawa is in her first year at a university in Tokyo and has dyed the ends of her long hair silver-grey, the fashion among many young Japanese at the moment.

"At the time we did not really think about the rules at my high school being strict as it was what everyone had to do," she said. "I went to an all-girls school and we had to wear a uniform, and we were not allowed to wear earrings or any type of jewelry or makeup," she added.

"No one questioned the rules and I do not remember anyone being told off for breaking the rules on how we dressed for school, but I am glad I have more freedom now," she said.

"For me, it was not a big problem to follow the rules at the time but I also understand that young people want to be individuals instead of all looking the same.”

Japan's teaching unions have also criticized the overly zealous application of rules on clothing and hair styles in schools.

Tamaki Terazawa, a spokeswoman for the National Teachers' Federation, told DW they are an unnecessary throwback to the Meiji Era, the 44-year period of rapid industrialization up until July 1912.

Military influence

"The education system that Japan has today started back in the Meiji period and effectively copied a military system, with uniformity in clothing, the bags that children carried to school and the style and color of their hair," she said.

"At the time, the government said uniformity in society was needed for the development of the nation, but that was more than 100 years ago and Japan is very different now," she added.

"We believe it is time that the regulations were changed and that children are allowed to be themselves," she said. "That is particularly the case for children from abroad or whose parents may be foreign and have settled in Japan."

"But we see constant resistance from conservative school authorities and it is going to take a long time, I think," she said.

"Perhaps our best hope is that a new generation of younger teachers are now entering schools and slowly rising through the education system. We hope these people will be more open to letting young people be a little more relaxed in the school environment," Terazawa added.