A
social media campaign against dress codes and expectations that women wear high
heels at work has gone viral in Japan, with thousands joining the #KuToo
movement.
Nearly 20,000 women have signed an online petition
demanding the government ban companies from requiring female employees to wear
high heels on the job - an example of gender discrimination, says Yumi
Ishikawa, who started the drive.
The #KuToo campaign is a play on the word for
shoes, or “kutsu” in Japanese, and “kutsuu” or pain.
Ishikawa, a 32-year-old actress and freelance
writer, hopes the petition she submitted to the health ministry on Monday will
lead to changes in the workplace and greater awareness about gender
discrimination.
She launched the campaign after tweeting about
being forced to wear high heels for a part-time job at a funeral parlor - and
drew an overwhelming response from women.
“After work, everyone changes into sneakers or
flats,” she wrote in the petition, adding that high heels can cause bunions,
blisters and strain the lower back.
“It’s hard to move, you can’t run and your
feet hurt. All because of manners,” she wrote, pointing out that men don’t face
the same expectations.
While many Japanese companies may not
explicitly require female employees to wear high heels, many women do so
because of tradition and social expectations.
‘THICKHEADED’
Ishikawa said her campaign had received more
attention from international media outlets than domestic ones, and there was a
tendency in Japan to portray the issue as a health one, not a gender one.
“Japan is thickheaded about gender
discrimination,” she told Reuters in an interview. “It’s way behind other
countries in this regard.”
Japan ranks 110th out of 149 countries in the
World Economic Forum’s gender-equality ranking.
“We need people to realize that gender
discrimination can show up in lots of small ways,” Ishikawa said, from how
women are treated by their bosses to expectations that women will do all the
housework and child-rearing even if they work.
In decades past, businessmen were expected to
wear neckties, but that has changed since the government started a “cool
biz” campaign in 2005 to encourage companies to turn down air-conditioners and
reduce electricity use.
“It would be great if the country had a
similar kind of campaign about high heels,” said Ishikawa.
She said she had been the target of online
harassment over the campaign, mostly from men.
“I’ve been asked why I need to make such a big
deal about this - can’t I just work this out with your company?” she said.
“Or that I’m selfish, that this is just part
of etiquette.”
The health ministry said it was reviewing the petition
and declined to comment further.
In Britain, Nicola Thorp launched a similar
petition in 2016 after she was sent home from work for refusing to wear high
heels.
A subsequent parliamentary investigation into
dress codes found discrimination in British workplaces, but the government
rejected a bill banning companies from requiring women to wear high
heels.