Japanese schools ban ponytails; say it can sexually excite boys

Tokyo: Japanese schools have banned female students from wearing a ponytail as it can "sexually excite" their male peers.

Vice World News quoted Motoki Sugiyama, a former middle school teacher, said school administrators told him that girls must not wear a ponytail because exposing the nape of their necks could “sexually excite” male students.

Citing another such weird rule, he said most schools in Japan require girls to wear white undergarments so that they won't show through their uniforms. He said, "I've always criticized these rules, but because there's such a lack of criticism and it's become so normalised, students have no choice but to accept them."

According to 2020 survey, about one in ten schools in the southern prefecture of Fukuoka prohibited the hairstyle.

Last year in June, outcry from students and parents over these rules prompted the Japanese government to ask all prefectural boards of education to revise draconian school rules, Vice World News reported.

Besides ban on ponytail, other rules include dictating the shade of students' underwear and socks, skirt length, eyebrow shape and even hair colour.

Some schools have been reported of demanding photographic proof from students of their natural hair colour if it isn't strictly “black and straight.” (UNI)