Japanese department store backtracks on plans for menstruating female employees to wear special badge
A generic photo of a Daimaru department store, located in Tokyo, Japan (Photo by Yamaguchi Haruyoshi/Corbis via Getty Images)
OSAKA, Japan - Officials with a Japanese department store are reportedly reconsidering plans for female employees to wear a special badge when they are menstruating.
According to The Japan Times, the Daimaru department store in Osaka originally had plans for female employees to wear a badge that features a Japanese manga character called "Miss Period". The character, according to another article by The Japan Times, became popular in 2017 in the form of a web-published comic, and was later turned into a movie that was released in early November 2019.
Reports from the BBC say the plans involve introducing the badge to female staff members in the women's wardrobe section of the store. The badges were introduced after a suggestion from employees, and wearing them was voluntary.
Officials with the department store say they had hoped to encourage bonding with the plan, The Japan Times reported.
"We received many complaints from the public. Some of them concerned harassment, and that was definitely not our intention," said one male executive with the department store. The Japan Times reported that the male executive did not want to be identified."