Heat Wave: Women oppose Japan’s casual office attire for men campaign, say it’s ‘leg hair harassment’

Some women in Japan have branded the government campaign pushing companies to allow men to wear shorts to work amid rising temperature in the country as “leg hair harassment.”

According to reports, since April the Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has introduced the ‘Tokyo Cool Biz,’ encouraging male employees to ditch their usual suit and tie for more casual attire, such as T-shirts, trainers and shorts during summer.

Four months into the campaign, the new short policy has been generating mixed reactions, with some respondents to a survey about the decision saying they are enjoying the relaxed rules as it enables them to work more comfortably.

However, others described the policy as unfair to women, who are unofficially still expected to wear tights when their work attire exposes their legs in a traditional Japanese office environment.

A survey conducted by Gorilla Clinic in June found out that 53.5 per cent of respondents opposed wearing shorts to work in the summer while 46.5 per cent were in favour of the new recommendation.

The BBC reported that the percentage of female respondents during the survey were significantly more than that of their male peers, which the clinic said implied more resistance to the new policy from women.

The main concerns for both men and women who opposed the policy were body shape and body hair. A few of those women reportedly linked their opposition of the policy to “leg hair harassment.”

“We want to give people more options in the severe heat, not tell them what to wear. There should be no issue as long as the work attire is not offensive to anyone,” Tokyo Metropolitan Government told the BBC when asked about the matter.