Why have some Japanese schools banned the ‘two-block’ haircut?
- It’s favoured by actors, baseball players, singers and bears more than a passing resemblance to the emperor’s hairstyle, so why the fuss?
- The head of Tokyo’s education board says the long and short of it is the style has been linked to ‘incidents’ and ‘accidents’
The issue was raised in a meeting of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly by Yuichi Ikegawa, a member of the Japanese Communist Party, who said some of his constituents had asked why the “two-block” cut – very short at the side and back of the head and slightly longer on top – was outlawed in some schools.
The vast majority of the messages expressed incredulity at the board’s justification for defending schools’ decisions to ban what is commonly known elsewhere as a short back and sides.
Ikegawa is seen asking why two-block haircuts are not permitted, to which Fujita replies, “There are cases when [students] have become involved in incidents or accidents as a result of their appearance and other factors, so it is decided from the perspective of protecting the students.”