School Uniform Reforms in Modern Japan

Abstract

Namba discusses the development of school uniforms in modern Japan. By distinguishing uniforms representing each school’s group identity, she focuses on the fundamental conditions for educating citizens and the modern manufacturing infrastructure to create a regional center for mass production. The regulations on school uniforms can be also understood in the larger context of governmental authority imposed on the modern body and modern citizenship. A transitional phase of the student uniform for girls combined a European suit with a modernized kimono. This style remained current well into the 1920s. A hakama is illustrative of the modernization of tradition for convenience that also emphasizes Japanese identity. Namba surveys the transformation from hakama in the 1880s to sailor-style uniforms in the 1930s after a long period of debates on women’s role in society originating from the imperial ideology of “Good Wife, Wise Mother.” In her case study of the Kojima region which provided uniforms for primary schools, Kojima transformed itself into a major center of textile and clothes manufacturing. In addition, primary schools’ uniforms became available at affordable prices for most Japanese families, while elite students in secondary schools used a designated tailoring shop for their custom-made uniforms with school emblems and accessories.