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Japan abolishes skirts from policewoman uniforms nationwide

Casey Baseel Mar 23, 2025
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After nearly a half-century run, skirts to no longer be part of uniforms.

Though Japan celebrates the start of the new year in January, it’s really spring that’s the time for new beginnings in the country. Spring is when the school year begins, when most companies start their fiscal years, and also when the majority of new public policies go into effect.

Included in that last category for 2025 is a new dress code from Japan’s National Police Agency, and as of this spring Japanese policewoman will no longer have skirts as part of their uniforms.

This both is and isn’t a major change. The National Police Agency, which serves as the coordinating organization for Japan’s prefectural police departments, first created standardized nationwide uniform codes in 1976, which specified that female police officers were to wear a dress shirt, a jacket outside of summer, and a skirt or pants. Under the revised unfirm code, though, which goes into effect soon, skirts are being abolished entirely.

▼ File footage from 1994 showing skirts as part of the police uniform at the point cued, followed by new summer uniforms to be introduced this year.

Considering that skirts have been part of Japanese policewomen’s uniforms for nearly 50 years, getting rid of them entirely is a pretty big deal. However, the 1976 uniform code specified that policewomen were required to wear a skirt or pants. The decision between the two has been left up to individual departments to make, based on their assessment of factors including female officers’ preference. In practice, it’s become rare for policewomen to wear skirts while in uniform, with a key factor being that the scope of female officers’ duties has expanded to include types of on-site and in-the-field questioning and law enforcement that was previously only conducted by male officers. As skirts limit mobility in ways pants don’t, almost all policewomen now wear skirts, and the majority of Japan’s prefectural police departments, 26 out of 47, no longer even issue skirts in female officers’ uniform packets. So while skirts will be officially abolished from policewomen’s uniforms, this isn’t so much a top-down policy dictation by the National Police Agency as it is a reflection that most of them are already wearing pants in order to do their jobs more effectively.

Also coming as part of the uniform code revision are new summer uniforms for men and women which replace the officers’ dress shirts with poli shirts made of a fast-drying polyester. The change follows a revision made by the Shimane Prefectural Police department last summer that, for the first time, allowed its officers to wear sunglasses while on duty, and similarly seeks to help reduce fatigue and improve operational efficiency of officers in the field during Japan’s notoriously hot and humid summer months.

The skirt abolishment goes into effect on April 1, and the new summer unforms are slated to go into use first in Saitama Prefecture in May.

Source: NHK News Web
Top image: Pakutaso
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