TOKYO: The growing “No Glasses for working women” trend in Japan is said to have generated an adverse impact on Japanese society lately.
In recent reports by Japan’s Nippon TV and Business Insider Japan, women from a range of industries are described as being instructed by their employers not to wear glasses.
Citing that the glasses don’t suit to the traditional dress of Japan and it also shadows the makeup which is regarded as a must in most of the working places, Japanese companies are said to have discouraged their workers to wear the spectacles.
Frail as the logic sounds to most of the women already suspicious about the society’s attempt to narrow women’s freedom, the protest is getting momentum with the joining of social workers and pioneers of women’s rights in Japan. Some restaurants said glasses on female employees didn’t go well with their traditional attire.
.The hashtag “glasses are forbidden” (#メガネ禁止) has been trending in Japan since Wednesday.
Many online commentators drew a connection to another recent uproar over Japanese workplaces requiring women to wear heeled shoes, which can be uncomfortable and difficult to work long hours in. Some high heels, medical experts have warned, can even cause chronic health problems.
“Earlier this year, Japanese women began voicing their discontent with arcane workplace restrictions on their looks through the #KuToo movement, which drew attention to the requirement that many companies still have that women wear high heels to work,” Quartz reported.
YumiIshikawa, a 32-year-old actress and writer, then, had started the hashtag when her feet bled from having to wear high-heeled shoes at work.
In Japan, many women have had it and are hoping to do away with dress codes specifically targeting women in the workplace. Ishikawa submitted a petition in June asking the government to bar companies from imposing dress codes that activists say specifically discriminate against women, like requirements that women wear heels, makeup or glasses.
(Agencies)
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