A Japanese department store is under fire over a controversial policy enabling female staff to wear special red badges when they are menstruating.
The unusual initiative was recently introduced Daimaru Umeda department store in Osaka, with the goal of encouraging empathy among co-workers when they were on their period.
However, the company said that it was now reconsidering the plan following a growing public backlash over the badges, which depict a red manga cartoon character called Seiri-chan (which roughly translates as Miss Period).
"We received many complaints from the public," an unnamed male executive at the store told Reuters. "Some of them concerned harassment, and that was definitely not our intention. We're reconsidering plans now."
He added that the store had not intended to make the badge compulsory, with the initiative launched to coincide with the opening of its new Women's Wellbeing section, the Daily Telegraph reports.