Women’s Day: Japanese banks abolish women’s uniform – 08/03/2023 – Market

Regular customers at the teller of Kanako Katayama, 36, at the Saitamaken Shinkin bank branch in Japan, noticed something different recently: the clerk was wearing a white shirt, black blazer and slacks. After imposing a dress code for 50 years, the bank now lets Katayama wear attire of his own choosing.

For many years, the bank forced its female employees, except those in management or sales positions, to wear a uniform: a shirt in specific colors, a vest and a skirt or culottes.

Since May 2022, however, female employees have been able to wear pantsuits or other appropriate attire. As of May, the same rule will also apply to temporary employees or those who work part-time.

Adopted in 1969, uniform standards were intended to “ensure grace and elegance” and improve performance in the workplace. But when the company recently polled employees to ask about that policy, some said they were uncomfortable seeing only women in uniform. Others opined that this led people inside and outside the company to view women as subservient to men. For the majority of respondents, the rule should be abolished.

A human resources official at the bank explained the policy’s origins: “Uniforms can promote a sense of togetherness among employees and help them make the transition from private life to work, which is important when working with money.” .

Even so, the bank decided to abolish the uniforms. “We think it’s important to end the ‘subservient image’ of women in uniform,” the official said. “We can earn our customers’ trust when we think about how to make a favorable impression on them with the clothes we wear, rather than creating a harmonious appearance with the use of uniforms.”

In several sectors and companies (post offices, mobile phone stores), employees of both sexes wear a uniform. So why has it become the norm for only women to wear a uniform in banking institutions? According to Makiko Habazaki, associate professor of gender studies at Saitama University’s Office of Diversity Promotion, it was due to the unique history of financial institutions.

From the 1960s, when Japan was experiencing rapid economic growth, banks began to hire women in large numbers to be tellers, to promote an accessible image and attract new customers. The all-female uniform rule was created by male executives who thought it would be difficult for female employees to buy business suits, as their salaries were lower than their male counterparts.

Habazaki explains that when the economy collapsed in the early 1990s, many banks abolished their female employees’ uniforms to reduce costs. But several of them restored the rule after a few years, saying it would promote unity among employees and enhance the bank’s image.

Over the last five or six years, financial institutions have become aware of issues of social responsibility and the need to achieve gender equality, and this has resulted in a new effort to abolish uniforms.

Koei Taniyama, director of a department at the Nippon Uniform Center foundation, believes that “uniforms are still an effective way to improve corporate branding, and interest in uniforms should return at some point.”

Even now, there are banks that buck the trend: Mizuho Bank Ltd., one of Japan’s largest, has always required male and female employees who work outside tellers to wear a uniform to avoid being mistaken for customers. The use of the uniform is optional only for cashiers.

Habazaki applauds this increasingly diverse scene and hopes that uniforms will eventually be abolished everywhere.

“The structure in which male employees go out to handle sales and female employees are cashiers harkens back to the traditional gender division of labor in Japan,” she says. “The uniforms played a role in visualizing this structure and encouraging its spread.”

Translated by Clara Allain

This story is being published as part of the “Towards Equality” project, an international and collaborative initiative that includes 14 media outlets to present the challenges and solutions to achieving gender equality.