Japanese High School Uniform

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The school uniform is an established part of Japanese life to the extent of being a fashion statement. It is common to see teenage girls wearing school uniforms even on weekends and school holidays.

Japan introduced Western style school uniforms in the late 19th century as a part of its modernization program. Today, school uniforms are almost universal in the public and private school systems. They are also used in some women's colleges.

The Japanese junior and senior high school uniform traditionally consists of a military style uniform (gakuran) for boys and a sailor dress (sailor fuku) for girls. The Japanese pronounce this as sera fuku. The Japanese word for uniform in general is "seifuku".

While this style of uniform is still in use, many schools have moved into more western pattern parochial school uniform styles in order to make a departure from the decidedly military appearance of the traditional uniform. These uniforms consist of a white shirt, necktie, blazer with school crest and dress trousers for boys and a white blouse, necktie, blazer with school crest and tartan skirt for girls.

Regardless of what type of uniform any particular school assigns its students, all schools will have a summer version of the uniform and a sports activity uniform.

Students often attempt to subvert the system of uniforms by adding "illegal" elements to their uniform (such as large loose socks or badges) or wearing their uniform incorrectly (altering skirts to "mini" size for girls and wearing trousers about the hips, omitting neckties and keeping shirts unbuttoned for boys). Students are also known to wear their sports activity uniforms under their more formal classroom uniforms as some Japanese schools do not usually have any gender segregated changing or locker rooms (they change in the classrooms).
Certain schools also take to regulating student's hairstyles along with footwear and bookbags, but these particular rules are usually adhered to only on special occasions such as tri-mester opening and closing ceremonies and school photo days.

Stylized school uniforms are prominent for instance in the Japanese comic Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura or a character from InuYasha, Kagome Higurashi, as well as Ling Xiaoyu and Miharu Hirano's school uniforms in the Tekken games.

Loose Socks

Loose socks are a type of sock that is popular among young Japanese girls.

They are nearly always white and are very long, in some cases up to almost 2 meters. They are usually worn below the knee, held up with an adhesive called sock glue and sock touch, and somewhat resemble leg warmers. Loose socks are often paired with skirts above the knee, with a pair of mary janes or loafers.

Some girls in junior high school and high school wear loose socks with their school uniforms. Certain schools forbid pupils to wear loose socks at school, so girls from these schools will often change into loose socks and wear them outside the school campus. It is common to see girls chnging socks in the street, on trains and in fast food restaurants.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Japanese school uniform" and "Loose socks"