Japan begins to adopt genderless uniforms for LGBT+ students

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An increasing number of high schools in Japanese provinces are relaxing or eliminating gender codes for uniforms to meet the needs of transgender students and other sexual minorities, with about a third of city governments taking such measures in response to a request from the Ministry of Education for five years. The information is from Kyodo News, via ipc.digital.

To gain wide acceptance, many are presenting the changes as a movement that benefits students as a whole, increasing flexibility for comfort and convenience.

Kyodo News polls with education councils found that more than 600 schools run by prefectures in at least 19 of Japan’s 47 provinces relaxed restrictions on uniform dress codes, such as allowing girls to wear pants instead of skirts.

Some schools in the 28 other provinces followed suit, although definitive data is not available on their education boards. However, research from Kyodo News found that school uniform options will be expanded across the country to all high schools starting next spring.

Clothes once seen as “standard attire” in schools have caused mental distress for students who identify themselves as transgender, as well as, in some cases, for lesbian, gay and bisexual students.

“I used to stifle my emotions and thought about dying before I reached adulthood”, said one boy, who chose a school that allows students to wear their own clothes after the bitter experience of being forced to wear a skirt in school.

The mayor suggested that he would consider modifying school uniforms.

The most common measure has been to allow pants for female students, but schools are also allowing students born as men to wear skirts. Among high schools with no options available as a general rule, some will address uniform issues on a case-by-case basis, if there are such requests.

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