Tokyo government allows workers to wear shorts this summer

Tokyo government workers were allowed to wear shorts to the office for the first time this summer as the metropolitan government loosened its dress rules during another punishing heat season. The change put the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's own employees, long expected to dress in jackets and ties, at the center of a debate over comfort, energy use and professionalism.

Under the Tokyo Cool Biz campaign, staff were encouraged to ditch jackets and ties in favor of shorts, T-shirts and sneakers. The policy was framed as a response to increasingly severe summer heat and as a way to reduce energy use, including demand for air conditioning, as Japan entered another scorching season.

The reaction was not limited to thermometers and utility bills. Online criticism quickly focused on bare legs in the office, especially middle-aged men, with one line of commentary calling the sight of their hairy legs "unpleasant" and "gross." Another question raised in the debate was whether hairy legs themselves could amount to harassment, a sign of how quickly a clothing rule can become a test of workplace boundaries.

That friction points to a broader shift in Japanese office culture. Tokyo's suit-and-tie standard has long signaled hierarchy and decorum, and the new allowance pushed against that code by making shorts acceptable inside a city government workplace. It also exposed how male bodies are still policed through appearance rules, with bare legs drawing more scrutiny than the heat that made them visible in the first place.

The Tokyo change was not simply a fashion experiment. It was a practical response to rising summer temperatures and a pressure test for how far public institutions can relax old standards without losing their sense of order. As hotter summers become harder to ignore, Tokyo's offices are now being forced to treat dress codes as part of climate adaptation, not just a matter of style.