from Hacker News

Why do small children in Japan ride the subway alone?

by feyman_r on 1/14/25, 12:42 AM with 106 comments

  • by lmm on 1/14/25, 4:16 AM

    Small children in any city with a subway used to ride it alone; it was entirely normal in New York or London. The question to be answered isn't why they do it in Japan, it's why they stopped elsewhere. (The article points to a mother being arrested for allowing her 10-year-old to play, which kind of thing is likely the immediate cause, but begs the question[1] of why and how we got to that state)

    [1] in the usual sense of the phrase, not the historical one recorded in some dictionaries

  • by freetime2 on 1/14/25, 5:25 AM

    I was born and raised in the US, and now living in Japan with my children attending a public elementary school here. I have been very pleased with my kids' preschool and elementary school so far: the teaching staff, the way subjects are taught (except maybe for English), the sense of responsibility and autonomy they are learning, healthy lunches, the musical performances, their physical fitness, etc. My kids also generally seem to be more fond of their school, and take more pride in it than I had growing up.

    > “Our job is to prepare them to enter society” by teaching them to collaborate, take initiative and treat everyone equally. He calls it hito-zukuri, the art of making people.

    > The education ministry’s slogan is chi-toku-tai: a blend of chi (academic ability), toku (moral integrity), and tai (physical health). This means lots of sports and arts. It also means that teachers praise effort, rather than achievement. Studies suggest this is an excellent idea: it makes children more resilient, notes Jennifer Lansford of Duke University.

    I actually think there is something to this. I struggled a lot in school with depression and behavioral problems - and drugs when I got a bit older - and it wasn't until I finally went off to college and gained some autonomy and was really challenged for the first time that I snapped out of it. With my kids I feel like I can already see that internal drive that I didn't develop until I was 18.

    Not all perfect, of course. But in general I like what I see.

  • by davidsojevic on 1/14/25, 4:44 AM

    In a similar vein, there is a Japanese TV show called "Old Enough!" [0] (1991-present) that focuses on kids as young as 3 year olds heading out of home by themselves and performing errands -- it really is quite amazing to watch how independent some of the kids are!

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Enough%21

  • by coldtea on 1/14/25, 4:31 AM

    Because it's a safer country whose culture doesn't produce as many insane and/or violent people, and doesn't have as many hysterical helicopter parents.

    In US kids used to also do just that, about half a century ago now. And walk to school in many places until the 80s and 90s.

  • by ctrlp on 1/14/25, 5:12 AM

    HN likes to blame safetyism or the "perception of crime" as if crime isn't real. The answer is that big cities in the US and Western Europe have changed in the past 20-30 years. There has been a real increase in free-range mentally deranged homeless. And a parallel increase in "cultural diversity" via immigration, leading to a lower trust environment all around. It may be a low probability event for a homeless lunatic to scream at your child or worse, or for your kid to wander into the wrong neighborhood, but parents don't want their kids exposed to that crap. Who would? Meanwhile, affluent parents have fewer children to spare and very thin communities to watch out for kids in general. The CPS laws penalizing more traditional parenting certainly don't help things.

  • by Eddy_Viscosity2 on 1/18/25, 1:28 PM

    I have a theory about this. Its the 'Del Boca Vista' theory of manufactured discontent. The idea is that when people achieve a lifestyle where all the basic needs are met as well as some luxuries coupled with ample free time, that they run out of legitimate things to complain about. So they start making them up. They create new rules for every conceivable slight (see most homeowners associations) and enforce them with religious fervor. They get angry over the most minor things because everything else is kinda great. But they need to have something to rail against, to be mad about, to fight against. It's human nature. In poorer communities people devote that energy to trying to survive. In wealthy communities it gets redirected at the rules about the wrong color door or calling CPS on kids out by themselves on public transport.

    The craziness and restrictiveness of their expectations of others is directly proportional to their overall high standard of living. If they are complaining about kids on subways, its because everything else in their lives is already awesome.

  • by theshrike79 on 1/14/25, 7:55 AM

    There's a great Japanese (reality?) TV show that kinda borders this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Enough!

    I think it's on Netflix in most countries.

    In it kids, usually 3-6 years old, are sent alone on errands like buying groceries or picking up stuff. They're followed by camera crew with hidden cameras who only interfere if the kids are _actually_ in danger (never happened in the episodes I saw).

    The parents are a bit worried usually, but not scared to death like an American parent would be if they had to send a 5yo to the closest store - which most likely is not accessible without a car anyway...

  • by Aeolun on 1/14/25, 4:41 AM

    Probably partially to do with how many other children do. The entire spectrum from 5-80 years old all take the train in the morning and throughout the day.

    There’s attendants at every station, so if they get off at the wrong place they can always find someone to help.

    The child (most of them anyhow) will have a transport card with them registered to the parents address/phone number, so even if they lose their mind staff will be able to contact the parents.

  • by utopcell on 1/14/25, 4:22 AM

  • by averageRoyalty on 1/14/25, 10:05 PM

  • by wiskinator on 1/14/25, 4:15 AM

    Article is paywalled but I think inverting the question is fun.

    Why don’t small kids in other western countries ride the subway alone?

  • by johnea on 1/14/25, 7:25 PM

    To... get to the other side?

  • by steele on 1/14/25, 4:18 AM

    Obviously just to puzzle and delight the Occidental rugged individualist.

  • by PoppinFreshDo on 1/14/25, 4:35 AM

    Having an unbelievable level of public safety probably has something to do with it.

    Let's hear it for strong public prosecutors