Japanese women fight for right to wear glasses to work
Hashtag "glasses are forbidden" trends after a Japanese TV show exposed businesses that were imposing bans on female staff.
Japanese women have taken to Twitter to demand the right to wear glasses to work after reports employers were imposing bans, in the latest social media outcry against rigid rules on women's appearance.
The hashtag "glasses are forbidden" has been trending after a Japanese TV show exposed businesses that were imposing bans on female staff.
"These are rules that are out of date," one Twitter user posted under the hashtag, while another called the reasons given by employers "idiotic."
One woman who works in restaurants tweeted that she was repeatedly told not to wear her glasses because it would appear "rude" and they did not go with the traditional kimono she wore.
The tweet, posted under the handle @wine_kimono last month, has since been shared nearly 13,000 times.
"glasses aren't allowed" is trending in Japan after a TV program about companies that don't allow women to wear glasses at work aired today. Korea had a similar debate last yr after a female anchor broke ranks and wore glasses on camera #メガネ禁止 https://t.co/BoWMZ2zTtP https://t.co/PVwxpa3uIs
— isabella steger (@stegersaurus) November 6, 2019
'Discrimination against women'
"If the rules prohibit only women to wear glasses, this is a discrimination against women," Kanae Doi, the Japan director at global advocacy group Human Rights Watch, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Friday.
The latest outcry came after a campaign earlier this year that demanded Japanese companies stop forcing their female staff to wear high heels to work.
God, some companies in Japan are forbidding women from wearing glasses? Why do people want to force women to wear contacts or high heels SO BADLY when 90% of the time it really doesn't affect their ability to perform their job, that's bullshit
— shipper ㋐Sarazanmai hype train㋐🍽️👮🏽👮🏻🏳️🌈 (@shipperinjapan) November 8, 2019
#メガネ禁止 (Ban on Eyeglasses) is trending. It's about workplaces where women are made to wear contacts for better appearance. This reminds me of #KuToo movement against "obligatory high heels". No more item-by-item debates. Let's go comprehensive with #Dont_Tell_Us_What_To_Wear
— Yuuki (@ore_english) November 6, 2019
More than 21,000 people signed an online petition started by a Japanese actress earlier this year that called for a ban on compulsory high heels at work, in what has been known as the #KuToo movement.
In response, a Japanese minister said dress code expectations were "necessary and appropriate" in the workplace.
Japan was ranked 110 out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Gender Gap report, well behind other developed countries.