The Rise & (Much Deserved) Fall of Japan's 'Buruma' Uniforms

In today’s video, we discuss the rise, and the much deserved downfall and disappearance of the "buruma" uniforms at Japanese academic institutions.

◆Our Digital Book◆
THE SECRETS OF THE JAPANESE MIND- Demystifying the Japanese psyche towards life, gender, love, sex and more.

I have spent decade plus years living, studying, and working in Japan.

And I have, quite literally, seen it all- studying Political Science and Economics at Japan’s most prestigious private university (produced the current Prime Minister of Japan as well as much of the business executives of the nation) to working at a Japanese firm afterwards, while simultaneously being a poor foreign student from South Korea on a government scholarship during the younger years, working midnight construction jobs in Tokyo in order to survive in what used to be one of the most expensive cities to live in (before all of the recent Japanese yen depreciation).

And from such experiences, I have seen how all layers of the Japanese society operate- from the elites that are to be future Prime Ministers, to homeless midnight construction workers working paycheck-to-paycheck.

This book is a culmination of my years of joy, as well as tears in Japan, attempting to first survive, then later thrive in this unique island nation by understanding its idiosyncratic people, whose minds I found to often operate on a cellularly discrete level to that of individuals from other nations.

◆About us◆
AL KIM
I graduated from Waseda University 早稲田大学 (the alma mater of the current Japanese Prime Minister, Chairman of Samsung Group, CEO of Sony, president and CEO of Honda, etc) with a degree in Global Political Economy 国際政治経済学科 at the Department of Political Science and Economics 政治経済学部, and have lived, studied and worked in Japan for over a decade.

I am in charge with most of the research and presentation on our Youtube Channel.

HELEN JUNG
My wife Helen majored in Japanese Language for her bachelor's degree, and has broad experiences working in Japan as a Japanese translator.

Helen is in charge of most of the beautiful editing and thumbnail designs that you see on our Youtube Channel.

[Asianalysis]

◆Our Digital Book◆
THE SECRETS OF THE JAPANESE MIND- Demystifying the Japanese psyche towards life, gender, love, sex and more.

Based on my decade-plus years of experience living in Japan, our book will mainly be of fruit for reaching two goals:

1.Maximizing utility that is to be had in a Japanese setting, or a setting composed of Japanese people, by being able to understand why they do what they do (rather than take the path of just complaining of how they think and do things so differently)

2.Avoid the years of trial-and-error and pain in which I had to personally face when bonding and interacting with people from the island nation, composed of individuals whose psychological framework was by far the most idiosyncratic to that of people from any other country where I’ve lived in (South Korea, UK, Australia, China, Malaysia, etc)

◆About us◆
AL KIM
I graduated from Waseda University 早稲田大学 (the alma mater of the current Japanese Prime Minister, Chairman of Samsung Group, CEO of Sony, president and CEO of Honda, etc) with a degree in Global Political Economy 国際政治経済学科 at the Department of Political Science and Economics 政治経済学部, and have lived, studied and worked in Japan for over a decade.

I am in charge with most of the research and presentation on our Youtube Channel.

HELEN JUNG
My wife Helen majored in Japanese Language for her bachelor's degree, and has broad experiences working in Japan as a Japanese translator.

Helen is in charge of most of the beautiful editing and thumbnail designs that you see on our Youtube Channel.

[hinatamercury]

No wonder teenage girls back in the 80s wore super long skirts and were member of rebel too if I had wear those

[ichigtchi]

I always thought anime just stylized them shorter than irl for anime "reasons" *shrugs* I had no idea girls were actually forced to pretty much run around in panties 💀

[deepsea]

In a country where teenage girls wearing floor length skirts is considered an act of rebellion, I HIGHLY doubt that the MEN running these schools mandated those uniforms with pure intentions.

[Hispandinavian]

No wonder the cellphone cameras have a mandatory shutter sound.

[uchidaoginome]

When i was in college I dated a girl from Japan who once told me that she hated those shorts! She didn't like the way male staff members would look at the girls as they went to and from gym class from the locker room. She said their male classmates, you know, the hormone-driven ones, didn't even leer at them like that. The boys showed more respect than the men by NOT staring at their bodies. I knew what bloomers looked like but i didn't think they were sexy and I remember asking how they kept their thighs from chafing. She said they were told to use lotion or baby oil. When i asked about the athletic advantage, she insisted there was none. That bloomers were only there so men could see young women's legs. That really made me question my relationship to, and what was at the time my idolization of, Japanese society.

[aziris]

While the criticisms of buruma have been ongoing for a long time, the banning of buruma actually started in another country. In the early 90s, the parents of Japanese International School Malaysia found out that their daughters were going to wear what clearly looked like an underwear for their physical education. Malaysia being a muslim country, this was clearly unacceptable. So the Japanese school, buckled under pressure, stopped the use of buruma in their school. The anti-buruma organization in Japan quickly heard of this and used this as ammunition to stop the use of buruma in actual Japan.

Now, you'd probably find one article on the net written based on third hand account of the incident claiming that it was Singaporean Japanese school that banned buruma, but this is not correct. The Japanese school of Singapore have been using buruma for decades. The parents couldn't care less about buruma. The confusion likely stem in that people back then only knew of Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. They did not know that there was another country between Singapore and Thailand, and thought Peninsular Malaysia is Singapore. And so when they looked at Kuala Lumpur on the map, they thought it was Kuala Lumpur, Singapore instead of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[gabriueda]

I was living in Japan while the transition from buruma to shorts began. My younger sisters still wore buruma, but even for the 13-year-old me, it was a bit odd to see them wearing that. I’m glad it’s been banned!

[emmas]

Wow! It looks like the girls are wearing underwear while the boys have on shorts. How ridiculous.

[bravo]

I didn’t realize the phase-out was all the way back in 1992 nor would have suspected based off anime and manga.

[CatsMeowPaw]

I never knew why girls couldn't just wear shorts like the boys. It made no sense.
I would go further and question why girls need to wear skirts. What's wrong with pants?

[jlastre]

Just as an fyi . The same sort thing is going on with female volleyball uniforms . The obvious difference is that professional and semi professional are older but there is no good reason that some of the governing bodies require the skimpiest shorts to be worn

[ssilentmedia]

lmao. you are telling me that the modern buruma happened because of nadia comaneci? as a romanian i find this extremely amusing. i would have never guessed that romania had such a weird influence on japan

[ujjawaltyagi]

I didn't know these burmas were banned bcoz Anime seems to show them till date and they are still used in lots of cosplay events and conventions 0_0

[BlueLightningSky]

I still remember that one Anime where the guy was complaining the girls in school wore sensible shorts instead of bloomers and then his magical friend magiced them all bloomers and they all reacted how high school girls should react when being forced to wear bloomers.

[wasntanythingmuch]

Now I know what "Buruma" meant as a name in "Dragonball".

[bujin]

Always wondered why you see girls in Anime wearing swimsuits during regular PE classes, I guess now I know.

[misuzuocean]

So glad this video came to me! I was born and grew up in Japan from 70s to 90s. We all girls hated wearing it. We had to pay attention constantly if our underwear were not peeking out. Imagine when you have your period for the first time at age 12 and forced to do PE class wearing these… it affected our self conscious images so negatively.
In fact there were so many more questionable rules we had to follow in Japanese schools. Our parents didn’t question anything against it. One crazy thing I remember was they did physical examination of all the students at school each year. They made girls to be topless and measure the bust sizes. While female teachers are doing it, the other male teachers were helping around in the same room just casually… that was in the middle school. Not to mention that corporal punishments were also normal. We got spanked with wide wooden yard sticks and our faces and heads slapped. Personally I remember that whole school experience was hellish. Real life childhood in Japan was not fun like anime at all back then.
I’ve been living in the US and didn’t know about this change. Finally! Good for the girls!!

[jacquinegordon]

I wonder why the comments supporting kids wearing panties to gym class seem to all be adult men…. Hmmmm. Anyway, I feel like some of the comments are kinda dumb. Y’all do know these uniforms were mandatory for PE CLASS, right? Meaning every girl was forced to where panties for PE credits, regardless of if they had any interest in athletics past high school. This ban did not apply to students on sports teams. They still wore the appropriate uniform related to their sport. So your precious track and field uniforms were still worn by students on the track team (or trying out for the team) . So why are people bringing up sports uniforms in support of The girl that just wants to pass PE to help her get into college majoring in math does not need to wear panties so that she has the optimal physical ability to do some warm ups and play dodgeball for 45 minutes… Let’s be absolutely real right now….

[AaaaNinja]

At the same time girls in some schools are not allowed to wear their hair in ponytails because their exposed necks might be too distracting.... it truly is a nation of contradictions.