Japan’s #KuToo Movement Aims to Stop Employers From Requiring Women to Wear Heels
When Yumi Ishikawa, a 32-year-old model and actress, tweeted in January her belief that employers in Japan should not be allowed to require women to wear high heels to work, she didn’t expect to cause such a stir. But she seems to have struck a chord.
When she saw that her remarks had been retweeted thousands of times and comments were flooding in from other women whose feet and backs were aching, Ishikawa, who is also a writer, seized the momentum and created the hashtag #KuToo — a clever combination of the Japanese words for shoe (kutsu) and pain (kutsuu) with a gentle nod to the #MeToo movement.
私はいつか女性が仕事でヒールやパンプスを履かなきゃいけないという風習をなくしたいと思ってるの。
専門の時ホテルに泊まり込みで1ヶ月バイトしたのだけどパンプスで足がもうダメで、専門もやめた。なんで足怪我しながら仕事しなきゃいけないんだろう、男の人はぺたんこぐつなのに。
— 石川優実@#KuToo署名中 (@ishikawa_yumi) January 24, 2019
While #MeToo has taken off in parts of Asia, notably finding its own unique forms in South Korea and China, the movement hasn’t quite had its moment in Japan. But a snowballing #KuToo campaign shows women..