http://whatjapanthinks.com/2009/10/14/piercing-and-workplace-bans-in-japan/ From kimono to keitai; research Japanese facts and figures through translated opinion polls and surveys. Thu, 10 Apr 2014 22:29:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.2 http://whatjapanthinks.com/2009/10/14/piercing-and-workplace-bans-in-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-189066 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:26:00 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/?p=2339#comment-189066 I’m old-fashioned in that I have no piercings at all–no, not even my ears (and I’m female), but I really don’t see what business it is of anyone else’s as long as the piercings are sanitary and not distracting. It seems so restrictive. A friend who returned to Japan to work was really stressed over trying to remember which earrings she would still be able to wear at her new job in Japan, and the ones she was agonizing over were quite modest by my standards (not even an inch long). Nearly all of my Japanese female friends quickly got their ears pierced when they came to the US and then really enjoyed having the freedom to wear whatever long or sparkly or dangly earrings they wanted to, even to work. They weren’t happy about having to restrict what they wore on their return. I realize it’s my own cultural standards speaking, but I think it’s a terrible shame to focus on such things (or men’s hair length or whatnot) rather than on someone’s actual personality, job performance, etc.

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