Toujin No Negoto　★　唐人の寝言

I don't know about the situation in America or Europe, but here in New Zealand, junior highschool and highschools generally require uniforms. In my school life, I had two uniforms. One was hideous; it comprised a white shirt with hideous green shorts. Yay junior high. My highschool uniform was a navy blue short-sleeve collar shirt with black pants for winter, or grey shorts for summer. Yeah, I hated the summer uniform, so I wore the winter one year round.

Anyway. The system in Japan in quite similar. While most elementary schools don't require their students to wear a uniform (制服 seifuku, the general word for uniform), some do. Usually though, the students are made to wear brightly colored hats (for road safety), and sometimes badges, that may indicate their school or class designation.

In the beginning, and I'm talking quite long ago, the dress of education was very much formal, with a kimono top and a hakama for pants. I imagine in the old old days, boys were taught more than girls, especially as far as writing and reading go (especially when Japan still used only Chinese for writing).

There are two main types of uniform in Japan's junior high and highschools. One of such is based on Meiji era military attire. Boys wear a 学ラン gakuran (also called a 詰襟 tsumeeri), it's basically a dark colored uniform top (though usually black). The top has a stiff collar that joins in the middle. Usually underneath, a white shirt would be worn, but it can change from school to school. The buttons of the coat may have the school emblem on it. On that note, the second button down on the uniform carries a special meaning; it's closest to the heart and as such you can give it to a girl as a confession... and forever have a missing button? Shoes vary.

Girls might wear sailor suits (セーラー服 seeraa fuku). You hear me. Well, they were introduced in 1921 and are based on the British Royal Navy uniform of the time. It has a strange collar, and a pleated skirt, which, despite their appearance in anime, are not always so short. There are variations in color and collars, and there are catalogs so that you can figure out what school a person went to just by looking up the design of the uniform. Some school uniforms from famous schools are easily recognizable.



In New Zealand it is very uncool to be seen outside of school hours in your school uniform, but in Japan it's not strange, what with the hectic life of school, clubs, juku and all that. Actually, though there may be more reasons than this for wearing ones uniform outside of hours. Some girls think it's cute, or a sign of their youth to rub in the face of oldies.

The other main type of uniform is more westernized, and you may see it in more fancy schools. Basically its a shirt, a tie, a blazer with the school emblem and dress pants, or a tartan skirt. There is a move toward buying custom made uniforms by popular designers.

There is an obvious conformity factor in wearing a uniform, so many will decorate their belts or shoelaces or hair ribbons or anything with bright colors.

It seems worldwide that the girl's sailor uniform is very popular as a sexual uniform. You can find streams and streams of AV with girls, who are oviously too old for highschool, sporting a school uniform. That's a topic for another day though. It used to be quite easy to sell a used uniform to adult stores.

It seems that this uniform has become popular abroad, especially among otakus and those interested in Japanese culture. There are lots of interesting fashions on the streets of Japan (also a whole other topic) involving the seeraa fuku, so maybe this contributes to it.