Pink Shirt Day Campaign 2024 of Japan YMCA

In solidarity with the global anti-bullying movement, Pink Shirt Day, Japan YMCA is promoting this initiative throughout all local movements.  The last day of every February is marked as YMCA Pink Shirt Day, which this year is 29 February.

In February 2007, a boy who wore a pink shirt to school was bullied for being a homosexual. Two senior students heard about this, and then they bought 50 pink shirts and called on the internet to wear pink shirts to school together tomorrow. The next day, hundreds of students who agreed with the call wore pink shirts and accessories to school. The whole school turned pink, and bullying naturally stopped.　The episode spread to more than 70 countries via social networking and other media, and last Wednesday in February, when the event took place in Canada, became known as Pink Shirt Day, a day to think about bullying and show solidarity with those being bullied.

The campaign aims to make bullying a 'personal issue' for society as a whole and to create a society where everyone can live safely and accept diversity rather than discrimination, prejudice and division, in this Covid-19 disaster.

In Japan, each local movements hold speakers to discuss bullying and take action to show solidarity with those who are in a difficult situation due to bullying.  Please see our Facebook page for more information.

https://www.facebook.com/japanymcapinkshirtday

We hope that as many people as possible will participate in this Pink Shirt Day campaign.

If you would like to join us in this campaign, please send a photo of yourself wearing a pink shirt or some other item to the National Council of YMCAs of Japan ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). We will share it on our website.  Or you can post it on your YMCA's social networking sites with #YMCAPINK.

By Utako Sugino, NCY of Japan