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Comment by jmyeet | Hacker News Reader

Netflix has a Japanese show called Old Enough. It shows Japanese children doing their first errand. Example: walking a kilometer to the store (including crossing a busy street), buying 3 items and bringing them back.

Age? 2 years, 9 months.

It's wild.

I grew up at a time and a place where I had a lot of independence. I rode a bike everywhere. I'd do things by myself and with friends. I actually feel sad for kids nowadays. Being a kid now seems to be being at home or getting shuttled from preplanned activity to preplanned activity in a car.

Almost everywhere in the US, it's really not possible to do it any other way because the entire infrastructure is predicated on car ownership.

Fears of abduction and worse are real of course but the risks are overstated. I actually think these risks are made worse by the ubiquity of cars. I mean think about it: it becomes a lot more difficult to abduct someone without a private vehicle.

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The article spends about ten paragraphs describing that show.

If you watch it, you'll notice:

  - Most of the kids live in quiet country towns or rural areas
  - Most of the errands avoid crossing roads, or:
  - If they do, then the assistants are checking for and controlling traffic
  - It shows kids doing their first ever errand, it's not their everyday life

I live in Tokyo and just today on my way to coffee, saw several kindergarten-aged children crossing busy main roads to go to school. It does happen and happens nearly every day.

This show likely does help prevent accidents (and yes 2 year olds aren't running errands every day) but the main point still stands, kids are living more autonomously in some ways in their every day life.

Japan as a haven for children is an exaggeration, at last in Tokyo.

Sure, we can see young children take the train and walk to school - but it is not common to see that. In 12 years of living in Tokyo (Nakano-ku mostly), I didn't see that very often. It might be more common in smaller parts of the country or for very specific use cases.

My two elder daughters went to kindergarten while I lived there. Their teacher walked to a spot near our house, where we took the kids, and then they walked together to school. They always had adult supervision. (Some parents would also take their kids by bike to school).

Japanese people have their own security concerns. Japanese schools have large walls and closed off school yards because the locals have their own safety concerns for children. (I believe there was a famous stabbing incident that led to that, but don't recall the details)

It should be clear that Japanese parks (at least in Tokyo) are actively hostile to children. Playing with balls, for example, is completely banned in many parks in Tokyo. Free parks are more for the old and enfeebled than for the young; silver democracy at its worst.

In my case, at least, my children are more free in Calgary than they were in Tokyo.

I can't say what's an exaggeration, and I don't know I'd call any place a haven. Japan isn't perfect, and raising kids here has issues, sure.

It seems we've had completely different experiences. Through shibuya/yoyogi area, I pass a half dozen parks (kids are playing double dutch, soccer, pitching baseballs), 2 rec sports field and countless kids of all ages walking alone or with friends. Not to mention the preschool children being wheeled around in those huge laundry carts.

Often topics on here and reddit become "Which place is best?" but I don't think that way. I'm happy for you and your family's move to Calgary, and have no doubt it's better for your kids.

Compared to when I lived in the bay area (and then rural America before that), it's a stark contrast and I appreciate any city that where most people can feel safe walking around just about anywhere, whether that's Calgary or Tokyo.

I usually chime in with Tokyo talk not say "yay Japan is the best!" but rather "America deserve at least a little better than it's getting."

Oh it happens, I'm not saying it doesn't. But my comment was more about how the TV show sets it up. I think kids should have more autonomy and be allowed to fail in a safe way, and shows like this do well to show what they're capable of.

The show is actually called はじめてのおつかい and it has been around for a long time, even before Netflix existed.

> I actually think these risks are made worse by the ubiquity of cars.

But this isn't new.

Japan has a far lower crime rate than most US cities.

Even still the crime rates in the US are extremely low.

Not in the city where you can send people to run errands on foot.

It's still extremely low in terms of the odds. Even right in the middle of whatever hood you fear most your odds of anything happening to you are slim to none.

I'm aware of the odds, it's on the edge of what you should be exposing your children too. It's bad enough that adults don't like them.

You shouldn't send your kids out in thunderstorms and you probably shouldn't send them on errands through US cities.

Adults are not often rational when it comes to real vs percieved risks of crime. Tons of bias there. If you look at the actual odds your kid is probably just as likely to experience some crime living in the suburbs vs an urban area.

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