YOKOHAMA -- The Kanagawa Prefectural Government is poised to stop providing female police officers with uniform skirts, as they are rarely worn compared to pants.

Kanagawa Gov. Yuji Kuroiwa submitted a draft ordinance amendment to the prefectural assembly on Nov. 25 to abolish the provision of uniform skirts to newly hired woman police officers. Currently, both pants and skirts are provided, but the latter are rarely worn.

According to Kanagawa Prefectural Police, the uniforms provided to rookie officers are stipulated by ordinance. Until now, women have been supplied with six pairs of pants and six skirts. It is up to the individual to decide which to wear, but at present, the overwhelming majority wear trousers. The uniforms must be returned when they are no longer needed, and even within the prefectural police, some said the skirts were unnecessary because it was a bother to keep ones they do not wear.

Therefore, the prefecture stopped providing skirts to female new recruits starting this fiscal year and began steps to revise the ordinance. It will reportedly provide three more pairs of pants instead.

In the past, female officers hired by the prefectural police were in general assigned to the traffic division of a police station, but about 20 years ago this was changed to police boxes. A police representative explained, "The wearing of skirts has decreased perhaps because of the need to track down criminals and look after drunk people."

(Japanese original by Masashi Yomogida, Yokohama Bureau)