Wow, Not to be judgmental, but maybe Japanese schools are a bit too strict...
I've never seen evidence that strict discipline creates good humans. Last I checked modern pedagogy teaches us otherwise.
But overall, strict rules on where it would be considered more of personal choices elsewhere were governed by such rule.
Back in where I was in middle school (close to 30 years ago, so certainly things have changed), I had:
1. Mandatory close clipped hair for male (repealed within first year I've attended -- I heard it took like 4 years of school council's effort do make this happen.) 2. Socks must be white 3. Shoes must be white
There were somewhat implicit rules against hair dying, and eating lunch box early (latter being more universal norm) -- both actually caused big scandal when someone actually did those...
I certainly expected so, I should probably have picked a less exceptional example from the article..
Still regulating color of shoes and socks seems a bit unnecessary. Granted school uniforms are common in some parts of the world (personally, I would find it rather extreme).