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“My chest was completely exposed and I felt embarrassed,” writes a Japanese girl after undergoing an annual health checkup at her middle school. Another says: “Before the exam our teacher told us we would have to lift up our tops and bra … I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t say no.”
The testimony from two 13-year-olds, seen by the Guardian, is typical of the discomfort – and in some cases trauma – felt by children attending schools in Japan that can require boys and girls as young as five – and as old as 18 – to strip to the waist during health examinations.
It has sparked anger among parents and campaigners who have called on education and health authorities to end the practice before the new academic year begins in April.
Noriko Tabuchi, a city councillor in Matsuyama, first became aware of topless school health checkups through one of her English conversation class students. “She was 13 and hadn’t been able to tell her parents, but I could see she was troubled and asked her what was wrong,” says Tabuchi, who has since met other girls, all aged 12 and 13, who were told to strip to the waist by visiting doctors.
There is no unified policy on whether children should undress or remain clothed during the checkups, with local education boards left to decide in conjunction with visiting health professionals. Some schools require children to keep their bodies covered, while others insist that they remove their T-shirts and, among girls, bras. One western Japanese city senior high schools – whose oldest students are 18 – requires that pupils are topless during the checks.
Surveys show that most teachers want the requirement to end, while one poll of middle schoolchildren, aged 12-16, found that 95.5% of respondents were unhappy about removing their clothes. “The health exams can have serious repercussions for children,” says Akiyo Tanaka, a city councillor in Nishinomiya. “Some of them continue to experience trauma into adulthood.”
www.theguardian.com
Many European countries like Belgium and Denmark still do checkups for children, so it's a practice that other countries do. The discussion about this decades-old practice, despite many feeling blasé about it in the past, is gaining traction nowadays though.
The testimony from two 13-year-olds, seen by the Guardian, is typical of the discomfort – and in some cases trauma – felt by children attending schools in Japan that can require boys and girls as young as five – and as old as 18 – to strip to the waist during health examinations.
It has sparked anger among parents and campaigners who have called on education and health authorities to end the practice before the new academic year begins in April.
Noriko Tabuchi, a city councillor in Matsuyama, first became aware of topless school health checkups through one of her English conversation class students. “She was 13 and hadn’t been able to tell her parents, but I could see she was troubled and asked her what was wrong,” says Tabuchi, who has since met other girls, all aged 12 and 13, who were told to strip to the waist by visiting doctors.
There is no unified policy on whether children should undress or remain clothed during the checkups, with local education boards left to decide in conjunction with visiting health professionals. Some schools require children to keep their bodies covered, while others insist that they remove their T-shirts and, among girls, bras. One western Japanese city senior high schools – whose oldest students are 18 – requires that pupils are topless during the checks.
Surveys show that most teachers want the requirement to end, while one poll of middle schoolchildren, aged 12-16, found that 95.5% of respondents were unhappy about removing their clothes. “The health exams can have serious repercussions for children,” says Akiyo Tanaka, a city councillor in Nishinomiya. “Some of them continue to experience trauma into adulthood.”
‘I couldn’t say no’: anger grows over topless medical exams in Japan schools
Parents and campaigners have called on education and health authorities to end the practice of requiring children to strip off for school health checks
Many European countries like Belgium and Denmark still do checkups for children, so it's a practice that other countries do. The discussion about this decades-old practice, despite many feeling blasé about it in the past, is gaining traction nowadays though.
