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A former student in Osaka, Japan, has won compensation from the prefectural government after being forced by teachers to dye her hair black when she was in high school.
The plaintiff 鈥� now 21 years old 鈥� has naturally brown hair, as per The Asahi Shimbun聽on Feb. 16. Her name was not disclosed to protect her identity.
On the same day, the Osaka District Court found the prefectural government responsible for the woman鈥檚 emotional distress and ordered it to pay her 330,000 yen (around $2,840 or P152,000) as compensation.
The former student enrolled in the Prefectural Kaifukan High School back in April 2015, according to the report.
While she initially used to dye her hair black to follow the rules, she was sometimes still banned from classes and school trips because 鈥渉er hair was not dyed black enough.鈥�
She eventually stopped attending school due to emotional trauma, according to the report. She sued the prefectural government in 2017 for this and sought around 2.2 million yen in compensation, far more than what the court gave in its ruling.
While she may have partly won the suit, the court still did not find the school鈥檚 regulations illegal. It just criticized the high school鈥檚 actions toward the girl.
School regulations prohibited students from 鈥済etting their hair permed, colored, bleached or braided with extensions,鈥� the lawsuit said, as cited by the Japanese newspaper.
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Among the actions the school took against the ex-student included erasing her name from a class list when she entered her senior year and making her seat unavailable in class, the report said.
鈥淪uch acts depressed the student and built an increasing sense of distrust,鈥� the ruling was quoted as saying, adding that the school 鈥渄id not consider the psychological toll on the student and its actions lacked serious legitimacy.鈥�
In the suit, the student also stated that her teachers rejected her explanation that her hair is naturally brown. The prefecture argued, however, that the vice principal checked the girl鈥檚 roots and determined that her hair was actually black.
The court sided with the prefectural government, noting that the teachers 鈥渞ecognized that the female student鈥檚 natural hair color is black based on reasonable grounds,鈥� the news outlet said.
The girl, however, argued in her suit that the teachers鈥� actions to force her to dye her hair black were excessive, and that they were against the right to self-determination guaranteed in the Constitution.
The prefectural government鈥檚 side was again supported by the court, with the ruling stating that school regulations have legitimate educational purposes.
The girl鈥檚 case, which drew international media spotlight on Japan鈥檚 tight school regulations then, has brought about the rise of activist groups in the country calling for changes in the said rules. Ian Biong聽/ra
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