{"id":14592,"date":"2017-05-17T14:38:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T00:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14592"},"modified":"2017-05-17T14:38:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T00:38:43","slug":"japans-high-school-hair-police-asahi-on-survey-57-of-tokyo-hss-demand-hair-color-proof-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14592","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s High School Hair Police: Asahi on “Survey: 57% of Tokyo HSs demand hair-color proof”. Still."},"content":{"rendered":"

Books, eBooks, and more from Dr. Debito Arudou (click on icon):
\n\"Guidebookcover.jpg\"<\/a>\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\"<\/a>\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"FodorsJapan2014cover\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
\n“LIKE” US on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a>
\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:
\n\"Donate<\/a>
\nAll donations go towards website costs only. Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0Ten years ago I wrote a JT column on Japan’s “Hair Police”<\/a>, i.e., how Japanese schools force their kids of diverse backgrounds to conform to a Wajin ideal of “black straight hair” imposed by inflexible school rules, and dye their hair black. \u00a0It’s recently been revisited by the Asahi and Business Insider.com.<\/p>\n

As I wrote back then, the damage to children is both physiological (Google “hair coloring” and “organ damage”<\/a> and see what reputable sources, such as the American Journal of Epidemiology and the National Institutes of Health, have to say about side effects: lymphatic cancer, cataracts, toxins, burns from ammonium persulfate), and psychological. \u00a0And yet it persists.<\/p>\n

And not as a fringe-element trend — the majority of Tokyo high schools (the most possibly cosmopolitan of the lot) police hair color. \u00a0In any case,\u00a0woe betide Japan’s Visible Minorities for daring to not “look Japanese” enough<\/a>. \u00a0Here are the\u00a0two articles, the second\u00a0of which actually references my old JT column. \u00a0Dr. Debito Arudou<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Survey: 57% of Tokyo high schools demand hair-color proof<\/strong>
\n THE ASAHI SHIMBUN May 1, 2017, courtesy of AT<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/AJ201705010035.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Some Tokyo-run high schools ask guardians to sign and seal a form to verify students’ claims of having naturally light-colored or curly hair. (Ippei Minetoshi)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly 60 percent of public high schools in Tokyo ask students with light-colored hair for proof, such as childhood photos, that these locks are their \u201creal hair,\u201d an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Many schools run by the Tokyo metropolitan government prohibit their students from dyeing or perming their hair as part of the dress code. The system of asking for \u201cproof of real hair\u201d was introduced to prevent schools from scolding or humiliating students whose hair is not naturally black.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Asahi Shimbun interviewed all 173 full-time high schools run by the Tokyo metropolitan government on whether they ask students to submit forms of \u201cproof of real hair.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ninety-eight of the 170 schools that responded to the survey answered \u201cyes,\u201d representing 57 percent of all schools contacted.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At least 19 schools ask their students to submit pictures of themselves as infants or junior high school students to prove the true color of their hair, the survey showed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSome students insist that their hair is natural even though it is dyed,\u201d said a teacher at a metropolitan-run school in Setagaya Ward. \u201cWe ask their parents to confirm these claims as their responsibility.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The style of the form varies from school to school. Most schools ask guardians to describe their children\u2019s hair, such as, \u201cMy child\u2019s hair is brown,\u201d on the forms. The guardians\u2019 seals are required to validate the information.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The number of students who submit the forms ranges from a few to a few dozen every year at each school.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Many schools hand out forms to new students who appear to have dyed or permed hair at a school information session attended by their guardians before the beginning of the academic year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The school said the forms are intended to avoid unnecessary problems with the students if they are admitted. But the forms also show that the school is making efforts in providing \u201cnon-academic guidance.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the nation\u2019s birthrate declines, competition between public schools and private schools to secure enrollees has intensified. Strict discipline can be a strong selling point.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Katsufumi Horikawa, chief of the guidance department at Tokyo\u2019s board of education, said asking for proof of natural hair \u201cis a valid process to prevent mistaken warnings to students (with naturally non-black or curly hair) and making them feel bad.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, he expressed concerns that some schools are going too far.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPhotographs are private documents, and extra consideration to protect personal rights is needed,\u201d Horikawa said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The education board of Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, said it is \u201caware of the practice at several high schools.\u201d Also in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures said they do not have information about the practice.<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Most Tokyo high schools demand students prove their real hair color, study finds<\/strong>
\n Business Insider.com, by Chris Weller<\/strong>
\n May 4, 2017, courtesy of BS<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/japanese-students-hair-color-2017-5<\/a><\/p>\n

In the US, dress-code violations might include an offensive t-shirt or a mini skirt. In Japan, a dye job can do you in.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to a new survey published by Tokyo news outlet The Asahi Shimbun, 57% of public high schools in the city require students to prove that their hair color is natural.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The measure is designed to uphold strict Japanese standards regarding physical appearance: In addition to prohibiting students from perming or dyeing their hair, many Japanese schools mandate crisp, respectable dress and don’t allow overly long or unkempt hair.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Asahi Shimbun, 98 of the 170 schools surveyed by the paper had such a policy in place. The number of children who’d been made to prove their hair color was real ranged from a few to a few dozen during the most recent school year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Some students insist that their hair is natural even though it is dyed,” one teacher told Asahi Simbun. “We ask their parents to confirm these claims as their responsibility.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike the US, Japan’s population is fairly homogeneous. As a result, the culture often places a premium on uniformity \u2014 even slight deviations from the norm tend to stand out, and provoke criticism in more conservative circles.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Natsuko Fujimaki, a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, says this is where the Japanese concept of majime comes into play. The term refers to a preference for order, tidiness, and often perfectionism. It tracks closely with a desire to stay reserved and sensible in comportment.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“They try to follow the rules for everything,” Fujimkai<\/em><\/strong> [sic] tells Business Insider.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to prove that a student’s hair is natural, schools will often ask parents to submit childhood photos depicting the kid’s hair color. In less extreme cases, parents only need to verify in writing (with a signature) that their child’s hair hasn’t been treated in any way.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The practice is not new. Even a decade ago, some schools required students to prove they hadn’t dyed or curled their hair. In extreme cases, schools would even require foreign-born students to dye their hair to conform to the rest of the student body as part of a forced assimilation process.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Every week teachers would check if Nicola was dyeing her hair brown,” a Brazilian-born student named Maria told Japan Times of her sister, Nicola, in 2007<\/a>. “Even though she said this is her natural color, she was instructed to straighten and dye it black. She did so once a week. But the ordeal traumatized her. She still has a complex about her appearance.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hair dye and perms aren’t the only beauty choices subject to Japanese dress-code standards. Many male students can’t wear spiky or messy hairstyles, allow their hair to cover their eyes, or let it grow past their collars. Some schools require female students to pin their hair back “in a way that does not interfere with classroom instruction,” as one school’s code put it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s falling birth rate plays a role in these rules. With fewer students to fill the schools, public and private schools have started competing for parents’ attention. One strategy they’ve adopted: Highlight their strict hair policies to show how majime they are about education, in hopes parents will be impressed by the rigor.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Some critics say the requirement that students prove their hair is natural violates their privacy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, advocates allege it does the students a favor, since one verification process can prevent headmasters from constantly asking whether a child’s hair is real. They say asking for initial proof ends up sparing kids even greater psychological harm.<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

========================<\/p>\n

Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or even click on an ad below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago I wrote a JT column on Japan’s “Hair Police”, i.e., how Japanese schools force their kids of diverse backgrounds to conform to a Wajin ideal of “black straight hair” imposed by inflexible school rules, and dye their hair black. It’s recently been revisited by the Asahi and Business Insider.com.<\/p>\n

As I wrote back then, the damage to children is both physiological (Google “hair coloring” and “organ damage” and see what reputable sources, such as the American Journal of Epidemiology and the National Institutes of Health, have to say about side effects: lymphatic cancer, cataracts, toxins, burns from ammonium persulfate), and psychological. And yet it persists. <\/p>\n

And not as a fringe-element trend — the majority of Tokyo high schools (the most possibly cosmopolitan of the lot) police hair color. In any case, woe betide Japan’s Visible Minorities for daring to not “look Japanese” enough. Here are the two articles, the second of which actually references my old JT column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,43,22,19,33,12,4,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-business-practices","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}