I think my kid is capable of walking to the store and doing errands at 7 1/2 years old. I doubt they will be abducted and I know they are responsible enough. What I am most afraid of someone calling the cops or CPS on me and taking them away.

I love how Japan had nice clean convenience stores every few blocks and vending machines everywhere. There is never a need to carry water bottles & snacks, portable potties, change of clothes, etc.

Anonymous wrote:I'm from Korea, not Japan, so I could be wrong but here are two facts that people may be overlooking.

1. Japan is a small country, geographically. Korea is the size of Virginia. Japan is perhaps the size of Texas? That means, all your aunts and uncles and 5th cousins live in 4 hour driving distance from you. Everyone knows everyone by the 4th degree, pretty much. That stranger you walk by is your uncle's neighbor's brother. The other stranger is your dad's high school friend's mom. So, there is more trust amongst strangers (the type of trust to watch out for kids only, I think there is more fraud).

2. Someone commented on having no sidewalks. City planning is different. Where the kids are walking are shared pedestrian/car roads. The roads are too narrow and there are way too many pedestrians and dogs and random buckets, chairs, for cars to speed past like they do even in neighborhood streets here. For a car to make it, they have to drive 5mph looking out for an object every 30 feet. So, cars are going slow and they are careful. Very unlike here.

There are 127 million people in Japan. There are 50 million people in South Korea. That's a lot of uncles' neighbors' brothers' cousins' sisters-in-law.

I wish that we had shared pedestrian/car roads here, with people driving 5 mph carefully.

pp here. also, a lot of people are used to the idea of not driving into the inside of their house (garage) like they do in the US. They drive the car to the neighborhood, park in some lot near the big streets, and walk to their house. That's the normal. So there are less cars in residential areas.

I'm from Korea, not Japan, so I could be wrong but here are two facts that people may be overlooking.

1. Japan is a small country, geographically. Korea is the size of Virginia. Japan is perhaps the size of Texas? That means, all your aunts and uncles and 5th cousins live in 4 hour driving distance from you. Everyone knows everyone by the 4th degree, pretty much. That stranger you walk by is your uncle's neighbor's brother. The other stranger is your dad's high school friend's mom. So, there is more trust amongst strangers (the type of trust to watch out for kids only, I think there is more fraud).

2. Someone commented on having no sidewalks. City planning is different. Where the kids are walking are shared pedestrian/car roads. The roads are too narrow and there are way too many pedestrians and dogs and random buckets, chairs, for cars to speed past like they do even in neighborhood streets here. For a car to make it, they have to drive 5mph looking out for an object every 30 feet. So, cars are going slow and they are careful. Very unlike here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Japan as a non Japanese. The U.S. is simply not set up in the same way. First, Japanese people are much more mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. Driving down my narrow Japanese street is terrifying, bc if someone walks out in front of me, it is totally my fault (even if they are negligent). Cars are "stronger" than people or bikes, so the driver is always blamed for not being more careful. Also, the crime rate is significantly less. Child abduction is linked to family members, not pedophiles (although sex crimes exist-groping on trains etc). Schools are set up so that kids can walk to schools in groups with teacher chaperones. Trains are accurate and perfectly timed. Society has to be set up like this bc the Japanese want their workforce at work, not encumbered by school drop off. It is pretty amazing.

I wish we did that here.

I don't. Pedestrians absolutely have every obligation to try to avoid accidents as do drivers of cars. Being on foot does not give you absolute right of way. Nor does it make you right.

Shorter PP: If I'm driving, and I run you over because you weren't careful enough, too bad for you.

My opinion is that I'm driving a big, heavy machine that can kill or seriously injure people, and so therefore the major obligation is on me, to not kill or seriously injure people with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to keep in mind is that in Japan other adults will look out for unsupervised kids. They have no qualms about helping or correcting a child that isn't theirs (I'm not Japanese so I may be wrong).

Back in the 60's and 70's when kids were running around the neighborhood, the adult neighbors were free to discipline or call out bad behavior they saw. They could report what they saw to your parents. Alternatively if you needed help you could run over and ring your neighbors' door bell. People knew their neighbors more.

There are still plenty of people who know their neighbors.

But now a days if you try to correct a neighboring child, the parent will get in your face and yell at you for daring to discipline the child. Also, busy bodies will call CPS if they see a 6 yr old walking around the neighborhood by themselves now. That's the difference.

Have you actually tried to do this, and that's what happened? Or are you just assuming that IF you tried to do it, that's what would happen?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Japan as a non Japanese. The U.S. is simply not set up in the same way. First, Japanese people are much more mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. Driving down my narrow Japanese street is terrifying, bc if someone walks out in front of me, it is totally my fault (even if they are negligent). Cars are "stronger" than people or bikes, so the driver is always blamed for not being more careful. Also, the crime rate is significantly less. Child abduction is linked to family members, not pedophiles (although sex crimes exist-groping on trains etc). Schools are set up so that kids can walk to schools in groups with teacher chaperones. Trains are accurate and perfectly timed. Society has to be set up like this bc the Japanese want their workforce at work, not encumbered by school drop off. It is pretty amazing.

I wish we did that here.

I don't. Pedestrians absolutely have every obligation to try to avoid accidents as do drivers of cars. Being on foot does not give you absolute right of way. Nor does it make you right.

Anyone ever read "a tree grows in Brooklyn?"

It's fiction but it's a pretty accurate description of life there at that time. My mom was running errands (shopping!) in Brooklyn ny at 4-5, taking along her 2-3 year old brother, while my grandmother worked. Yes-this was in the late 30s. Yes life is different.

But the point is kids are capable. Our expectations and lifestyle structure today don't really allow for it.

i had a girlfriend who lived inJapan with her family for a year recently and she said all the kids, even kindergarteners, go to school by themselves in Tokyo. They hop on the subway and get off at the right stop or walk in their neighborhoods.

everyone sees it as their responsbility to watch out for the kids and be sure they are safe, but the kids pretty much can manage for themselves. It is a very different society but a very safe one, at least in this way.

Anonymous wrote:Omg. Soooo cute!!!

I thought the little sister stole the show. She was the steady one.

Anonymous wrote:I live in Japan as a non Japanese. The U.S. is simply not set up in the same way. First, Japanese people are much more mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. Driving down my narrow Japanese street is terrifying, bc if someone walks out in front of me, it is totally my fault (even if they are negligent). Cars are "stronger" than people or bikes, so the driver is always blamed for not being more careful. Also, the crime rate is significantly less. Child abduction is linked to family members, not pedophiles (although sex crimes exist-groping on trains etc). Schools are set up so that kids can walk to schools in groups with teacher chaperones. Trains are accurate and perfectly timed. Society has to be set up like this bc the Japanese want their workforce at work, not encumbered by school drop off. It is pretty amazing.

But isn't their workforce mostly men? Not trying to be funny, but it's well known that many Japanese women put off getting married/having kids because they understand they probably won't be working after that point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of this can be done here. I sold DD's stroller when she was a few months shy of 3, and I carried for her only a diaper, small pack of wipes, one small snack. When she started asking to bring toys on errands, I would say "Only if you carry it". We only lost one once (she left her stuffed panda on a city bus; I told her he had gone on vacation to Florida). While I couldn't let her walk to a store from the house by herself, I could let her go INTO a store by herself with money to purchase something.

Isn't this normal? Mine is only 18 months and I only carry a diaper, few wipes in a ziploc, and a water cup. In a regular purse. I thought most people were past the diaper bag with their entire life it in at that point.

I will admit, the stroller makes a nice Starbucks/shopping bag holder and I don't know how I'll let it go.

Are you the one borrowing an extra set of clothes and a snack or band aid from me? I hang out with these people, and I am always providing things such as sunblock, off, extra water, etc. Bring your own stuff, don't feel so high and mighty because you don't have stuff for emergencies.

Nope. I use sunscreen that can be used on a 2 yr old so we share. I'll get my kid her own water. Really, kids don't need tons of stuff. They won't die if they have to wait 20 minutes for some water.

yup. It's not just Japan. I'm also Asian but not Japanese; I probably ran my first errand when I was 4 as well.

I honestly can't even let my child walk one block to the elementary school because of the one intersection she would have to cross being dangerous for ANYONE, let alone a child. I've nearly been run over there multiple times even being ridiculously cautious.