Photo/Illutration Attendees talk about the progress of school rule reform at a general education meeting held at the prefectural government office in Saga on March 24. (Daisuke Matsuoka)

SAGA--A decades-long white-only underwear restriction enforced for students at some schools in Saga Prefecture, southern Japan, is finally being axed on grounds the dress code infringes on their human rights and privacy.

The move by the Saga prefectural education board is in response to concerns about unnecessary rules initially intended to foster a better educational environment.

Prefecture-run senior and junior high schools, as well as special-needs schools, are being instructed to review outdated regulations for children.

The findings by the education board on March 24 showed that 46 schools have deleted or altered rules regarded as excessive and unreasonable.

“I believe that school rules have been amended in a proper manner,” said Yuji Ochiai, who heads the educational board, during a general education meeting held that day to discuss the finding and other issues. “We will continue telling schools to update their standards in line with the trend of the times.”

Fourteen schools operated a strict dress code that obliged students to “don white underclothing,” according to the prefectural education board.

All 14 schools abandoned the regulation after it was pointed out through the review that the rule may infringe on human rights.

Previously, the Saga Bar Association looked into regulations governing students at prefectural junior high schools and their Saga city-run counterparts. It submitted a proposal for reform to the prefecture’s education board last November.

On the issue of “white underclothing,” the association noted that white garments can be seen through clothes. Teachers were called upon to visually check that appropriate underwear was being worn.

The tradition is now viewed as being embarrassing to children and may constitute “an extra human rights violation.”

In the study, a lawyer asked four male and female junior high school children about the undergarment regulation, and confirmed school operators had required “female students to show their bra straps to determine their color as part of the clothing checkup.”

Among other criteria viewed as going against human rights were “different uniform rules for boys and girls” reported at 35 prefectural schools and one urging students to “explain their natural hair attributes, such as red and curly hair,” at three schools. Both practices have been dropped.

Seemingly unreasonable restrictions are also targeted in the reform. Use of lap rugs was “prohibited” at two facilities, while students were allowed to add “only one toy mascot to their bags” in two schools. They have also been abolished.

Some rules remain, though. Of 24 schools that “basically stop students from working part-time,” 16 maintain the taboo. Similarly, 14 of 28 operators continue to ban children from “having an overnight stay on their own without a guardian accompanying them” and 26 of 39 schools have not altered their “prohibition against perms, bleaching, dyeing and other peculiar hairstyles.”

“School operators can make judgements on their own in principle, but we will keep prodding them to forge ahead with reform on a continual basis,” said an official of the education board about the retained standards.

School principals are responsible for setting rules on students. The prefectural education board in March last year ordered that operators review their regulations. Municipal educational boards were also notified of the decision.

Schools were required to examine restrictions from the standpoint of whether they “could lead to human rights violations” and whether they inappropriately “refer to private activities outside schools.”

School operators were also urged to encourage students and their guardians engage in the discussions.

At the March 24 meeting, Saga Governor Yoshinori Yamaguchi took part along with five prefectural education board members.

After the report on the school rule reform was wrapped up in the first 10 minutes of the one-hour gathering, opinions were exchanged about other school improvement projects by the prefectural government and the education board.

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