Society

Former student in Osaka told to dye hair black appeals to Supreme Court

Mar 25 (Japan Times) - A young woman in Osaka Prefecture has appealed to the Supreme Court a high court ruling that her former high school’s rules and guidance forcing her to dye her brown hair black was legal.

The school, operated by the prefectural government, is one of many in Japan with a rule that students’ hair must be black.

The woman, who is now 22 years old, enrolled in the school in 2015 and was told by teachers roughly every four days to dye her hair black despite her explanations that she was born with brown hair. In September 2016, she began refusing to go to school.

The case came to light in 2017, sparking debate about invasive school rules across the nation. In the same year, the woman filed a damages suit against the prefectural government with Osaka District Court, claiming that she had suffered mental stress.

In February 2021, the district court ordered the prefectural government to pay Y330,000 to the former student for actions by the school, such as removing her name from school rosters after she stopped attending.

But the court said that the school’s enforcement of the hair-related regulation did not go beyond the range of discretion given to it. The plaintiff took the case to Osaka High Court. ...continue reading

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