Things are changing in the world of school uniforms, with students allowed to choose skirts or pants regardless of their gender. Schools are welcoming these moves, which are made out of consideration for transgender students, as well as overall needs for comfort and functionality.
Fukuoka Girls' Commercial High School has allowed students since April to choose what they wear from among two types each of blazer, pants, skirt, jabot and necktie.
A third-year student, 18, began wearing pants sometimes, as she prizes mobility. "The pants look cool," she said with a smile.
Located in Nakagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, this private school began considering the free choice of uniforms in consideration of students who felt uncomfortable that their school uniform was decided according to their gender.
The school asked members of its student council two years ago to wear pants on a trial basis, an experiment that was received well among other students. The school then decided to officially introduce pants.
Wearing pants is also aimed at protecting students from such crimes as people taking photographs under their skirts. Of about 400 students, about 10 have started wearing the pants, the school said.
Fukuoka prefectural-run Genkai High School in Koga has 20 overseas students. Since April, it has allowed female students to wear pants for religious reasons, as some students do not want to expose their skin.
Growing national trend
School uniforms are being reconsidered nationwide.
According to a major school uniform maker Kanko Gakuseifuku Co., based in Okayama, about 630 of the junior high and high schools that it supplies allowed their female students to choose between a skirt and pants as of April.
In Setagaya Ward in Tokyo, some of the 29 ward-run junior high schools already allow pants for female students. The ward government intends to gradually spread the choice to all the schools.
The Fukuoka city board of education plans to establish a panel in May at the earliest comprising principals, parental guardians and others to discuss unisex designs for school uniforms.
Prior to that, Fukuoka municipal-run Kego Junior High School will switch from boys' tsume-eri (stand-up collar jackets) and girls' sailor-style uniforms, to a blazer that comes either with skirts or pants from the next school year.
According to a 2013 survey by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, there are at least about 600 transgender students nationwide whose sense of their own gender differs from their physical sexual characteristics.
About 60 percent of the schools surveyed replied that they "give some sort of consideration" to those students, such as allowing them to wear the uniform of the gender they see themselves as.
With such circumstances in mind, the ministry issued a notice in 2015 asking schools to support such students and establish a consultation system, leading schools to take action to review their school uniforms.
Battling stereotypes
Kashiwa municipal-run Kashiwanoha Junior High School in Chiba Prefecture opened this spring with a free uniform selection system, but no female students have worn pants so far.
Students appear to be partly concerned that they will be thought to be members of sexual minorities if they wear pants. The school intends to seek the understanding of students by conveying the message that sexual diversity should be accepted.
"When adults describe girls wearing pants as 'manly,' that may be pushing their value on others and provoking bullying. It's important for adults to build the sense that it's OK to wear anything you like," said Yuri Igarashi, the 44-year-old chairman of Rainbow Soup, a Fukuoka-based nonprofit organization supporting sexual minorities.
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