Job Discussion Forums

[flyer]

[Sweetsee]

I for one certainly am a hippie and proud of it. However, my hair is kept at 6 mm.
Enjoy,
S

[SaganWasHere]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Seklarwia and Bread,

Every Situation Is Different (ESID).

That's why you see some dispatch companies saying 'wear whatever level the other teachers are' and others 'you must be in a full suit- blazer and slacks doesn't cut it- when you are playing dodge ball in the playground'.

Some general things that everybody should know:

1. Japan is in general more conservative in dress code than inner circle English speaking nations.
2. JETs and ALTs in general are treated as lamb, not mutton for the simple reason that most of them ***ARE***.

[natsume]

Right, ESID.

I wear business casual, never a tie (except for graduation and openning ceremony), and am in line with the majority of the teachers at my high school. There are a few very sharp dressers, but I think that is just their choice. I keep my hair short because it is comfortable to me. I have seen both kyoto and kocho in track suits. I have seen many Japanese who seem to take great pride in their appearance but apparently not in their jobs. I work with a JTE (male) who has shoulder-length hair, and usually wears a suit and tie. I am a JET ALT (not a lamb) who is treated as an equal in my department. Granted, I have a bit more "life experience" than many JET ALTs.

ESID.

[gwynnie86]

Here's something you might be interested in knowing...
While dispatch companies (eg Interac) tell people to wear business attire, in many cases the schools will tell the ALT just to dress casually. I'm still in my stockings and shirts (and it's getting HOT here) but some of my friends dress very casually, especially for ES and Kindergarten. Just don't tell your dispatch company and it's fine.... but wait until someone tells you it's OK, first. Once you're working at your schools, you'll rarely hear from Interac anyway. BUT - keep a spare suit somewhere in the school. All the teachers have them sneakily stashed away for those impromtu inspections, you don't want to be caught short.

Re: the hair. I know many people who won't cut their hair for a job, be it due to pride, religion, culture, or a sense of identity. That's fair enough but you have to decide whether that's more important to you than a job. You can't expect them to make an exception for you. I can't think of any teachers here with long hair (guys, I mean), although I do know some men here with others jobs who have long hair. It might be possible but you'd have to really wow them with everything else, so that they think you're worth hiring over everybody else, I guess?

[Sweetsee]

Long hair is so yesterday.

[flyer]

[Sweetsee]

Ride on, Flyer! I'm glad you dug that! It's so true though, isn't it? Speaking of which, my students were telling me how much they loved one of the J-soccer team players. I think you know which one. I told the missus and she said, "Eeeew, that hair is so awful! It's just the worst when J-guys have hair like that!"
Enjoy,
S

[flyer]

yes, we are on the same wave length!

I totally agree! 100%!, it was ridiculous

some were in a total time warp!

[Sweetsee]

I'd say many are rather than many were. I see the construction types all the time and just have to crack up.

Also, dig your avatar, Flyer! Those guys rule. Got all their stuff!


Enjoy,
S

[flyer]

[mspxlation]

The question is, what do you want more? A job in Japan or long hair?

Japan is what it is. It will not change just because you want it to.

Case in point--

I'm not a teacher, but a translator, and on one autumn trip to Japan, the weather was so unseasonably hot and humid that my feet swelled up, and the dress pumps that I had bought for meetings with clients were agonizing to wear.

Fortunately for my ability to walk, I happened upon a sale of European sandals, and unlike the U.S., where it's always the small sizes on clearance, this Japanese store had the large sizes available.

Now these were definitely dressy but understated sandals, not flip-flops. They would have been acceptable business wear in most U.S. companies.

Yet when I went to my next client meeting wearing these sandals (and they were the reason I was able to walk at all), I overheard two of the employees there whisper disapprovingly to each other, "Wearing open-toed shoes to meet clients?"

I'm way past student age, and the rigidity of Japanese society bugs me at times, too, but it doesn't do any good to fight the small stuff. If I ever take another business-oriented trip in hot and humid weather (I try to avoid it), I'll take a pair of closed-toed shoes that is one size too large. It's a lot less stressful than futile complaining.

If you go around with this "I gotta be me!" attitude, you will not do well in Japan.

[Okonomiyaki]

Japan is a culture that has strong magnetism toward the center. What I mean is, there's incredible pressure to conform, and complaining, unusual dress, or standing out in any other way that promotes your individualism is considered immature.

This is so very different from the West's hero-and-rugged-individualist ideal that it's hard for Westerners to adjust to Japan's "team spirit" mentality.

Hence, one doesn't ask "why?", and endures silly workplace and school uniforms amongst other things.

The big exception to this rule is the people who already feel they're on the fringe of Japanese society, so they simply rebel MORE. These folks would be the bosozoku (teen gangs), yakuza (mafia), and artistic types.

As a "gaijin" (literally "outsider"), each foreigner is automatically considered a part of the lunatic fringe, so we can "get away with" quite a lot of non-mainstream behavior without losing our jobs and friends. There are limits, though!

Remember that Japan is a culture of manga (cartoon novels) and even TV is designed to be simple, straightforward role playing. Hence, visual cues and strong role types are commonplace and difficult to erase. Hence, a man with facial hair or a tattoo or a rough, shaggy appearance is sure to be associated with bosozoku and yakuza, not with serious and safe teachers.

Let's not forget that as big hairy foreigners, we Western men already look a big gorilla-thug-weird-ish, so we have to battle back from less than zero....or simply accept our role as "outsiders" akin to thuggish gorillas.

That having been said, there are exceptions. If a man has long hair kept VERY neatly, it might be acceptable, but certainly not commonplace.