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Elementary and junior high students speak out on Japan’s strangest school rules

Elliot Hale Jun 21, 2025
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Underwear must be a certain color, or if in gym class, removed entirely.

The Japanese schooling system has an ongoing problem, being rife with outlandish rules that simply don’t make sense in the modern day: elementary school students not being allowed to put on underwear beneath their gym clothes, or junior high and high school students only being allowed to sneeze three times during class. Despite the many, many complaints that find their way to the boards of education, many of these outdated and oppressive rules persist even today. A recent online survey gathered responses from 1,749 elementary and junior high school students from across Japan to find out what other strange rules schools have that kids are baffled by.

▼ “Your guess is as good as mine.”

You might think that only a minority of the schools cling on to backwards school rules, but you’d be mistaken. A whopping 79.1 percent of respondents answered that their school has rules that are just plain bizarre. For elementary students, the ones that had them the most confused were the ones regarding stationery, with bans being put on items that have a scent or decorated by characters. Above all, though, is the ban on mechanical pencils, despite many junior high schools allowing the use of them. Clearly mechanical pencils are too deadly for young children to wield correctly.

▼ After all, they do look positively lethal.

Junior high students, on the other hand, are left more perplexed when it comes to rules about their hair, such as having to tie it up if it touches your shoulders, or only being allowed to have hair ties in specified colors. Dyeing your hair is also completely out of the question at many schools.

▼ Sadly, the common anime setting of a class full of members with vivid hair colors is unlikely to be seen in reality.

It doesn’t stop there though, with kids highlighting other rules they have to put up with in their daily lives, like socks needing to be of a certain color and length, or underwear having a specific color or pattern. The issue with underwear and gym clothes persists, with several elementary schools prohibiting them from being worn at the same time, and even some junior high schools doing the same.

Other rules mentioned were restrictions on keychains, phones, and food and drinks. There were even some students who answered that there were limits on bringing mirrors and brushes to school, as well as some who answered that they weren’t allowed to bring sunscreen to school.

▼ “Skin cancer? What’s that? If I say ‘no’, it means ‘no’.”

Rules are only effective if there are appropriate consequences for breaking them, so what happens if a student dares to rebel, and brings some abhorrent sticky notes into the sacred hall of learning?

▼ Are teachers afraid some child will go wild pasting them all over the school?

Some responses include a three-warning system, where you get sent to a student guidance counsellor after three warnings, and should you be sent there three times, you’re expelled. Others include being forced to write reflection essays, having something confiscated, or being sent home to fix the problem, only being allowed to return once they have done so.

However, some of these consequences can end up creating unfortunate or unintended results. One student had their favorite mechanical pencil thrown away that they had brought by mistake, and another couldn’t contact their parents after a late club activity due to a smartphone ban. Perhaps the most humiliating of all is having to show your underwear in front of everyone to prove that you’re in compliance with the rules.

While the effectiveness and necessity of these rules is certainly debatable, the survey brings forth a valuable point: students are able to question the rules that make up their everyday lives and recognize when something doesn’t seem to sit quite right with them. Whether it’s about their socks, pencils, or hairstyles, children want their voices to be heard. Although many schools seem to be rather reluctant to cast aside these long-held rules, change is happening gradually. So, it might take a while, but hopefully public displays of the underwear young students have got on will become a relic of the past.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
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