School rules in Japan: No dating

It is not at all surprising that high schools in Japan have rules that guide the behavior of their students. However, some Japanese schools have come under public scrutiny in recent years for some of their rules that are considered outdated, too strict, or inappropriate.

One case that followed here in Japan was that in 2017 a high school student in Osaka sued her school for emotional damages for forcing her to dye her hair black when her hair was naturally brown. In the lawsuit, he won more than $3,100, but only because the judge objected to the fact that the school took the student’s name off the list when she stopped attending school after being told she needed to attend if she needed to. she refused to dye her hair. The rule itself was not considered problematic.

Other lawsuits that focus exclusively on the legality of a school rule, although the lawsuit has been lost, the unease is still there. For example, at a high school in Kumamoto Prefecture, there is a rule that all male students must shave their heads, which most find unfair. In 2011, a student from Nara Prefecture also lost a lawsuit alleging that her school’s hair-dyeing rule amounted to corporal punishment.

On November 30, 2022, attention turned to a de facto courtship eviction. The lawsuit filed by a former student of a high school in Nakano, Tokyo, against the school administrator.

In this case, the school rule was not related to the appearance of the students but to their behavior. More specifically, the high school prohibits dating between men and women.

The former student, who was given a recommendation for “voluntary withdrawal” from the school after being subjected to a four-hour questioning by a teacher in which it was revealed that she was dating, sought damages for approximately 7 million JPY. (about $50,500 USD) The Tokyo District Court ordered the school to pay him approximately 970,000 JPY (about 7,000 USD).

In its ruling, the Tokyo District Court upheld the school rule prohibiting “dating between men and women”, calling it an “effective means of disciplining students”, but noted that “the fact that the school recommended the removal volunteering without providing the student with any educational guidance is grossly inappropriate in terms of socially accepted ideas.”

This is the first court decision in Japan ordering compensation in a lawsuit involving expulsion related to a school rule that prohibits dating between men and women.

Although technically a “voluntary withdrawal” recommendation at a Japanese school does not equate to outright expulsion, the complete lack of guidance, in this case, surely made it abundantly clear to her that she was no longer welcome and, even assuming she could stay at the school somehow, it would have been extremely difficult. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, it was a de facto expulsion.

In social networks, many agreed with the rule, since this preparatory school is usually attended by show people and many argued that “this rule is to prevent people from entering the school with the hope of dating someone famous.”