With #KuToo, Japan women kick back at high-heels at work

TOKYO: A group of Japanese women on Monday submitted a petition to the government to protest what they say is a de-facto requirement for female staff to wear high heels at work.

The #KuToo campaign, a play on words from the Japanese word "kutsu" -- meaning shoes -- and "kutsuu" -- meaning "pain" -- was launched by actress and freelance writer Yumi Ishikawa and quickly won support from nearly 19,000 people online.

Campaigners say wearing high heels is seen as near-obligatory when job hunting or working at many Japanese companies. "Today we submitted a petition calling for the introduction of laws banning employers from forcing women to wear heels as sexual discrimination or harassment," Ishikawa told reporters after meeting labour ministry officials.

A ministry official who met her "was a woman and sympathetic to our petition... and told us that this is the first time voices of this kind reached the ministry", Ishikawa said. "It’s the first step forward" towards achieving their goals, added Ishikawa.

Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment on the petition. A tweet by Ishikawa earlier this year that complained about the requirement to wear heels for a hotel job went viral, prompting her to launch the campaign.