Society

Japanese middle school promotes long pants to full-uniform status for girls, equal with skirts

Jan 09 (rocketnews24.com) - Taiyo Middle School, located in the Kanagawa Prefecture city of Hiratsuka, is celebrating the 71st anniversary of its founding this year. To mark the occasion, the school is introducing new uniforms for students enrolling in April, when the 2018 school year begins.

But while uniforms are usually designed to implement sameness, Taiyoâ€™s girls will actually be able to show more variety in their mode of dress, as the new uniforms officially allow girls to freely choose between wearing a skirt or slacks.

This wonâ€™t be the absolute first time for girls at Taiyo to wear long pants on campus. During the winter months, for example, some girls opt to wear slacks because theyâ€™re warmer than a skirt. However, with the new uniforms principal Yugo Kuriki is stressing that slacks are not an â€œalternateâ€ or â€œmodifiedâ€ girlsâ€™ uniform, but have full standing equal to the skirt version.

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