The school decides what color underwear you wear.
You have to proof and register that that is your natural hair color
and need a sign from your parents.
Hey guys this is CathyCat and recently Japan has made the news because of their strict school rules
For example in a part of Japan girls are not allowed to wear a ponytail because
the exposed neck could excite boys.
We are gonna hit the streets today and ask Japanese people here in Harajuku
How strict their school rules really are and let's go and Ask Japanese.
Recently abroad the news got out how strict Japanese school rules are.
How was your school life?
My school was really strict and we HAD TO have our hair tied up at all times.
We were forbidden makeup
Using online media was forbidden too.
So no social media? You were not allowed to have a phone?
You are allowed to have a phone but you are forbidden from using it on school grounds
You are only allowed one talking app called LINE. - But you can use social media at home right?
Even after school we were forbidden to use twitter or Instagram.
Even in your free time out of school you are not allowed to be on social media?? - Yes.
Why so? - Because it is dangerous?
Kids might share their private information and the school didn't trust us with that.
So while all other school kids are making tiktoks you were banned from it?
We did it all anyways in secret.
Didn't think about it.
Even if they want to tie you down, it was impossible. - Something like that.
At my school we only had 4 rules.
We could even choose not to wear the uniform if we wanted.
Your schools were polar opposites.
Our school focused on the students freedom.
There used to be uniforms but the students rebelled saying "freedom is happiness'
The school agreed and stopped having uniform mandates.
I think that is a little rare in Japan to lose the uniforms.
That is right. I do not see it much around me either.
But we still behaved right in our school life.
There wasn't a problem at all.
How do you feel, hearing that? - I am so jealous!
Are you breaking out now, because your school was too strict?
That is right. Because the school was so strict, after graduation a lot of girls died their hair crazy colors.
Been freed from suppression?
Yeah like that
Have you head some other rules from the schools of your friends?
Some schools decide on the students underwear colors.
Some search your luggage before school.
And the teachers look at everything in your bag.
I heard about that. - First...
what do you mean with the underwear color???
It is also in the news that it is weird that some schools mandate what underwear color students can wear.
Until now it had to be white or plain colors.
I heard Japanese schools are strict with hair color, how was yours?
We could have any color we wanted and were just asked to remove earrings when doing sports.
Could you wear earrings? - Forbidden
Dying your hair? - Forbidden too.
Any rules on your nails?
Long nails were forbidden.
Abroad the ponytail ban is the most talked about, how about that?
We were allowed to have ponytails...
But having them up high was forbidden too.
Is there a reason?
No reason.
Maybe because the person behind cannot see the white board?
Long nails are dangerous for sports, so we had to cute them too.
That is why you had to take off earrings - As long as its not dangerous we could do what we want.
Hearing your friends school rules, what did you think?
I am so jealous of her.
And you?
She had had such a tough time. She should have come to my school instead!
How strict were your school rules?
Generally earrings, makeup, nail polish, hair dye were all forbidden.
If you did any of that they would confiscate and seize your items.
I got my items back, but my friends didn't get it back until her graduation ceremony.
What type of earrings did your friends have? - normal earrings like these.
She tied her hair up for sports, the teacher saw it and took them away.
She didn't see her earrings for 3 years. - 3 Years~??~?~
Depending on the teacher the timing of getting it back was different.
I got mine back shortly.
I was always wondering why we were forbidden to wear earrings.
I would have thought the earrings are lost. - She got them back on graduation day.
On graduation: Congratulations here are your earrings back. - Like that.
She had already forgotten about them and was surprised to get them back.
If they had been special earrings, waiting for 3 years sounds tough.
On Twitter I read a post that said:
In highschool girls are forbidden to wear makeup, once we work, we are told to wear makeup.
We keep getting told it is forbidden to us and suddenly we have to do it once we work.
The twitter post said they don't agree with that, and I think so too.
In school it is forbidden, at work... women HAVE TO?
If you work in some sort of customer service, it is expected of women in Japan.
They will get told at work to wear lipstick and such.
Or to show having great skin.
That is a rule of working in Japan.
So instead of a natural face, in the working world we get told to put on makeup. Saw it on Twitter.
And that stuff is real here.
True, now that you say it. All that pressure and double standards.
I agree.
Were your school rules stict?
We had to wear the designated socks and shoes even.
That's strict! - And your backpack?
That was also designated by the school - Like a school bag? - Yeah.
No backpack on your bag, but a handheld bag of your school? - Yes.
Can you explain what items in your school uniform were mandated?
First we could wear shoes or loafers, the length of the socks was mandated too.
We tried to break that sock rule and the teachers always got angry.
What did you break? We had to wear navy or black socks by school rule but...
We broke the rules by wearing white socks or socks with some patterns on them.
Our skirt had to be underneath our knee.
We had to have all buttons apart from the top one always closed
Our hair had to be black and we were forbidden makeup.
Nail polish and earrings were forbidden.
If everyone's hair is black, what do people with naturally brown hair do?
At my school you had to register your natural hair color for that.
You also needed a signature of your parents confirming that 's your natural hair color.
At my friend's school, even if you had naturally brown hair, you needed to dye it black..
They forced her to dye it black to look like everyone else.
- Are you for real? - That's crazy right?!
She had beautiful brown hair and light brown eyes but...
she had to dye her hair black for the rules.
What did you think when you heard that?
Do we have to prescribe and abide to rules to THAT extend?
Does this make sense?
Japan thinks that black hair is the symbol of purity.
Japan thinks that?
What would happen if you broke your school uniform rules?
I got asked to go to the 'daily life guidance' penalty class.
I had to write an apologizing essay.
'Write several words to apologize' - Yes.
I had to write a 3 page written apology for bringing a phone to school
I mean writing 3 pages about bringing a phone to school, that is so unreasonable. I looked it up online.
Picked up what others wrote online in their apologies and pretended it was all from me.
Hold on. You didn't use your phone in class. You had to write 3 pages just for carrying a phone?
First we were allowed to carry our phones, but our school had some internal trouble.
One of our teachers got posted on social media.
And that got into the news.
And then we got forbidden to have phones at all at school.
So just for owning a phone you had to go through the 3 page apology.
What did your teacher mess up?
A teacher and a student were fighting.
The actually punched each other a little, and a student filmed it and put it on twitter.
It got viral and even the TV got involved in featuring it.
Media reporters all assembled around our school
That was the reason why we got forbidden to carry phones from there onwards.
- I heard about it - The director even knows the story!
That's what lead to the new rules.
To avoid students filming things like that, they forbid it altogether.
But for me, it takes me over an hour to get to school and I was used to having a phone before the incident.
I cannot just do nothing for an hour on the train.
Some smuggled their phones in, those who lived close did not need them as much.
But is not safer for the STUDENTS if they can have phones on them? - I totally agree!
There are some very strict rules that you guys could see in the video but also some schools that are actually
fairly relaxed which means the ponytail rule does not apply to all schools in Japan.
I think we found that out together today.
But there is MORE we actually interviewed students before and they showed us some...
very SHOCKING school rules so be sure to check out this video here with more shocking school rules
and some even stricter rules than we expected
are in this video. Be sure to check it out, thank you so much for subscribing.
We see you for another video here in Tokyo, bye!