Anyone can wear trousers at Japanese schools

Fukuoka Girls’ Commercial High School has allowed students since April to choose what they wear from among two types each of blazer, trousers, skirt, jabot and necktie.
One third-year student, 18, who wears trousers on some occasions, says she prizes the mobility they afford. “The trousers look cool,” she added with a smile. Located in Nakagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, this private school began considering a free choice out of consideration for students who felt uncomfortable that their uniform was decided according to gender.
The school asked members of its student council two years ago to wear trousers on a trial basis – an experiment that was received well among other students. The school then decided to officially introduce trousers.  Of about 400 students, about 10 have started wearing trousers, the school said.
Fukuoka prefectural-run Genkai High School in Koga has 20 overseas students. Since April, it has allowed female students to wear trousers for religious reasons, as some students do not want to expose their skin. 
School uniforms are being reconsidered nationwide. According to a major school uniform maker Kanko Gakuseifuku Co, based in Okayama, about 630 of the junior high and high schools that it supplies allowed their female students to choose between a skirt and trousers as of April.
In Setagaya Ward in Tokyo, some of the 29 ward-run junior high schools already allow trousers for female students. The ward government intends to gradually spread the choice to all the schools. 
The Fukuoka city board of education plans to establish a panel comprising principals, parental guardians and others to discuss unisex designs for school uniforms. Prior to that, Fukuoka municipal-run Kego Junior High School will switch from boys’ tsume-eri (stand-up collar jackets) and girls’ sailor-style uniforms, to a blazer that comes either with skirts or trousers.
 According to a 2013 survey by the Education Ministry, there are at least about 600 transgender students whose sense of their own gender differs from their physical sexual characteristics. About 60 per cent of the schools surveyed replied that they “give some sort of consideration” to those students, such as allowing them to wear the uniform of the gender they identify with.
With such circumstances in mind, the ministry issued a notice in 2015 asking schools to support such students and establish a consultation system to reviewr school uniforms. 
Kashiwa municipal-run Kashiwanoha Junior High School in Chiba Prefecture opened this spring with a free uniform selection system, but no female students have worn trousers so far. Students appear to be partly concerned that they will be thought to be members of sexual minorities if they wear trousers. The school intends to seek the understanding of students by conveying the message that sexual diversity should be accepted.
  “When adults describe girls wearing trousers as ‘manly’, that may be pushing their value on others and provoking bullying. It’s important for adults to build the sense that it’s OK to wear anything you like,” said Yuri Igarashi, thechairman of Rainbow Soup, a Fukuoka-based nonprofit group supporting sexual minorities.