Photo/Illutration Prospective employees, some in brown-dyed and curled hair, attend an orientation ceremony held at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co.'s headquarters in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district on Oct. 1. (Takashi Yoshida)

In a shift from tradition in corporate Japan, some companies are encouraging prospective employees to “be themselves.”

Japanese companies have long favored straight black hair on their new employees in the name of uniformity. Recruits with colored hair would dye their locks pitch black and straighten out all of the curls to match the “one-size-fits-all” look.

However, a smattering of brown was seen amid the usual sea of black hair at company orientation ceremonies on Oct. 1. The ceremonies are held mainly for college seniors who have received unofficial job offers and are expected to join the companies next spring.

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. had sent e-mails to prospective employees, telling them to “attend the ceremony in free hairstyles.”

About 10 percent of the 300-or-so attendees showed up with dyed brown hair or curly hair at the ceremony held at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district.

Sayaka Oishi, 21, sported brown hair at the ceremony. She had made an appointment at a hair salon to dye her hair black but canceled it.

“I think this is good for (the company) to get to know my true self,” Oishi said.

The insurance company in August abandoned its across-the-board dress code for employees, leaving the matter up to the judgment of each department.

Behind the free-hairstyle movement was Procter & Gamble Japan KK, a company that manufactures and distributes personal care products.

As part of a campaign to promote a hair-care product, the company called on other firms to make their orientation ceremonies free from rigid uniform hairstyle rules.

In response, 139 companies agreed to join the effort.

DeNA Co., an Internet-related company, is one of them, although it said it already has no rules about employees’ hairstyles.

Yuma Fukagawa, 23, was one of the 64 prospective employees who attended DeNA’s orientation ceremony on Oct. 1.

Fukagawa, whose hair reaches his back, said one of his male friends had similarly long hair when he received a job offer from a different company.

“He chopped his hair off,” Fukagawa said.