This week’s featured article

KYODO, AP

The labor minister has indicated he will not support a drive to ban dress codes that force women to wear high heels at work.

Employees’ health and safety need to be protected, but work is varied, said Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Takumi Nemoto, who oversees the country’s workplace reforms.

“It’s generally accepted by society that (wearing high heels) is necessary and reasonable in workplaces,” Nemoto said during a Diet committee session on Wednesday.

His comments came after a group working against gender-based workplace discrimination submitted a petition with 18,800 signatures to the labor ministry on Monday calling for the government to ban companies from requiring women to wear high heels in the workplace, citing health and other issues.

The group, led by actress and writer Yumi Ishikawa, is part of the #KuToo movement — an amalgamation of #MeToo and the Japanese words for shoes, kutsu, and pain, kutsū.

Nemoto was responding to Kanako Otsuji, a member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, who said forcing women to wear high heels at work is “outdated.”

While Otsuji stressed that a dress code applied only to women amounts to harassment, Nemoto said it’s only “abuse of power if a worker with a hurt foot is forced (to wear high heels).”

However, Emiko Takagai, a senior vice minister for Nemoto, said during the same session she does not believe women should be forced to wear high heels.

Ishikawa said the #KuToo movement is a way to raise awareness about sexism.

“It’s the view that appearances are more important for women at work than for men.”

Like when wearing makeup on their face, a girl’s legs look better in heels, she said sarcastically, her feet in blue sneakers.

Japan placed 110th in the latest World Economic Forum ranking on gender equality, which benchmarks 149 nations on their treatment of women based on measures such as educational attainment and health hazards.

Women elsewhere, including in the U.S., Canada and Europe, have also protested dress and makeup requirements and having to wear heels. The red carpet at Cannes, infamous for its strict dress code, has seen celebrities walking barefoot in defiance of it.

First published in The Japan Times on June 5.

Warm up

One minute chat about what you’re wearing.

Game

Collect words related to shoes:

e.g., feet, walk, sneakers

New words

1) petition: a formal request that makes an appeal for a cause, e.g., “The neighborhood residents are passing around a petition to stop construction of a large tower nearby.”

2) amalgamation: the action of uniting, e.g., “The towns were amalgamated into one city.”

3) sarcastically: in an ironic way meant to mock, e.g. “The child sarcastically asked for more vegetables — and mother obliged!”

Guess the headline

Labor minister opposes banning dress c_ _ _s that force women to wear high h_ _ _s

Questions

1) What does the petition ask for?

2) Why is it sexist?

3) How is the issue treated abroad?

Let’s discuss the article

1) Do you have a dress code at work?

2) Should male and female students be forced to wear uniforms?

Reference

状況によって相応しい服装も変わるのは自然なことで、寝間着のまま仕事にいくことには多くの人が抵抗を感じるでしょう。しかし、その”相応しさ”というのは私たちの認識によってつくられ、多くの人がほぼ無意識的に持っているだけの感覚なのかもしれません。中には見直すべき相応しさもあるのではないかと、仕事場で女性はヒールを履くことが相応しいという認識へ声を上げた人たちがあらわれたのは、その相応しさによる苦痛が耐えがたいものだったからに他ならないでしょう。

誰もが気持ちよくいられる職場や社会のためのドレスコードとはいったいどのようなものなのか、朝英語の会に参加し皆さんで話し合ってみましょう。