I call bullshit on the school not being aware of the students ethnicity.
Extremely horrible news to hear nowadays. I don’t know if there will be follow up in justice by the parent or a NPO but I do hope the school and responsible won’t be without consequences.
While I can understand the argument of not following rules in a general case. In this case, the school rules didn’t rules out such hairstyle for men and as such the treatment was left to a subjective and without any doubt racist professor who can decide black or white without any guideline.
Truly horrible for the kid, it was supposed to be one of the special day of his life
I honestly don’t see the problem if the school had a hairstyle policy and it suddenly wasn’t followed. My reservation would be if the student had always had this hairstyle and it was never an issue before.
You can’t just show up with a new hairstyle that is outside the rules and just assume it to be okay.
It is an entirely different matter as to whether the hairstyle rules are appropriate – in many cases they are not and need reforming.
Is this really race related and not more hairstyle related? For example if an ethnically Japanese student wore a cornrow or punch perm, would they not get the same treatment?
This is not a racial issue, it’s a TPO issue. He says that’s a tradition but no Japanese student would come to a graduation ceremony with a chonmage, and if they came to the graduation ceremony with a chonmage, even Japanese students would not be able to attend the graduation ceremony. Nigerian-Japanese have also says on [his social media](https://twitter.com/valentine_promo/status/1640601043976466433) that this is not discrimination.
Seeing news like this, make me think that Japanese culture are like NPC society.
If there is a hairstyle policy then there is a hairstyle policy. It can’t be changed. I am sure that a Turban would also not be allowed when graduating.. I’m not saying it was the correct decision but thinking about arabic countries where in some cases women have to cover their full body this is rather harmless.
I’ll probably be downvoted. :). So let me state first that I am against many of the old-fashioned school rules and dress codes that exist in secondary education in Japan. I often speak up about them at my private high, and even had my spouse get involved when a couple of teachers couldn’t accept that my own daughter’s hair could be both wavy and straight depending on the weather. But the rules are there. And they continue because the schools are worried about their image. In Japan, it is always tatamae over honne, right?
That said. This issue was nothing against the kid’s ethnic background. If they proceeded like my school does, which I have every reason to believe, they did a hair checkup the day or days before graduation, making sure everyone was following the guidelines. And I’m sure that this kid passed without cornrows. Everyone would’ve also been instructed to not do anything against the rules, too. But….he did. He knowingly showed up with cornrows, knowing that it wouldn’t be acceptable.
Now, I do support changing the rules to allow more freedom in hairstyles. And I also think he should’ve been allowed to sit for his graduation anyways. But the kid broke the rules. He made a decision to break them and suffered consequences for breaking them. It wouldn’t have mattered who he was or what ethnic background, if any student had shown up with a different hairstyle after being checked the day or days before, they would’ve received the same punishment.
I hope good things come from this, though. I’ve had my own daughter make it through high school here and as I mentioned, we had our own fight over her hair. But I would like to see Japan fighting for more relaxation in the rules that exist at secondary schools in general. They are outdated. And appearance doesn’t really effect what a student is capable of achieving, as we see in many other countries worldwide.
Japan’s finance minister says government will take necessary forex steps as yen tumbles https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/japans-finance-minister-says-government-will-take-necessary-forex-steps-yen-tumbles-3918446
8 comments
I call bullshit on the school not being aware of the students ethnicity.
Extremely horrible news to hear nowadays. I don’t know if there will be follow up in justice by the parent or a NPO but I do hope the school and responsible won’t be without consequences.
While I can understand the argument of not following rules in a general case. In this case, the school rules didn’t rules out such hairstyle for men and as such the treatment was left to a subjective and without any doubt racist professor who can decide black or white without any guideline.
Truly horrible for the kid, it was supposed to be one of the special day of his life
I honestly don’t see the problem if the school had a hairstyle policy and it suddenly wasn’t followed.
My reservation would be if the student had always had this hairstyle and it was never an issue before.
You can’t just show up with a new hairstyle that is outside the rules and just assume it to be okay.
It is an entirely different matter as to whether the hairstyle rules are appropriate – in many cases they are not and need reforming.
Is this really race related and not more hairstyle related? For example if an ethnically Japanese student wore a cornrow or punch perm, would they not get the same treatment?
This is not a racial issue, it’s a TPO issue. He says that’s a tradition but no Japanese student would come to a graduation ceremony with a chonmage, and if they came to the graduation ceremony with a chonmage, even Japanese students would not be able to attend the graduation ceremony. Nigerian-Japanese have also says on [his social media](https://twitter.com/valentine_promo/status/1640601043976466433) that this is not discrimination.
Seeing news like this, make me think that Japanese culture are like NPC society.
If there is a hairstyle policy then there is a hairstyle policy. It can’t be changed. I am sure that a Turban would also not be allowed when graduating.. I’m not saying it was the correct decision but thinking about arabic countries where in some cases women have to cover their full body this is rather harmless.
I’ll probably be downvoted. :). So let me state first that I am against many of the old-fashioned school rules and dress codes that exist in secondary education in Japan. I often speak up about them at my private high, and even had my spouse get involved when a couple of teachers couldn’t accept that my own daughter’s hair could be both wavy and straight depending on the weather. But the rules are there. And they continue because the schools are worried about their image. In Japan, it is always tatamae over honne, right?
That said. This issue was nothing against the kid’s ethnic background. If they proceeded like my school does, which I have every reason to believe, they did a hair checkup the day or days before graduation, making sure everyone was following the guidelines. And I’m sure that this kid passed without cornrows. Everyone would’ve also been instructed to not do anything against the rules, too. But….he did. He knowingly showed up with cornrows, knowing that it wouldn’t be acceptable.
Now, I do support changing the rules to allow more freedom in hairstyles. And I also think he should’ve been allowed to sit for his graduation anyways. But the kid broke the rules. He made a decision to break them and suffered consequences for breaking them. It wouldn’t have mattered who he was or what ethnic background, if any student had shown up with a different hairstyle after being checked the day or days before, they would’ve received the same punishment.
I hope good things come from this, though. I’ve had my own daughter make it through high school here and as I mentioned, we had our own fight over her hair. But I would like to see Japan fighting for more relaxation in the rules that exist at secondary schools in general. They are outdated. And appearance doesn’t really effect what a student is capable of achieving, as we see in many other countries worldwide.