Hi, this is Shafu. I born and raised in Japan, but now live in the U.S.
One thing I noticed after moving here is kids do not play outside without their parents.
I asked Google and knew that parents do not let their children out without proper adults to protect them from kidnapping or any other kind of crimes and accidents.
In Japan, kids often go out without adults. When I was an elementary school student, I went to school by foot. After school, me and friends went to a park and play till it was getting dark. I went to cram school on train without my parents. So I was surprised that kids are so protected in America.
One of my favorite Japanese TV programs is “Hajimete no Otsukai”. This Japanese name means “My first errand” in English. These days Netflix offers this program as “Old Enough!”.
Small kids (2-5 years old) are asked by their parents (mainly their moms) to buy something or go and give to someone. Kids (sometime with their siblings) go out and complete the mission. Sometimes they take trains, ask local people for help. At last, their mom welcomes them back and they are in tears with happiness…
Kids do unpredictable things. Going wrong way, buying different things, forgetting what they should do… but these small troubles make the program so cute. People in front of TV feel like they are the parents.
This program has bad reputation too. Even in Japan, very safe country, some people feel it is dangerous to let kids do shopping by themselves, and it is not good to make impression that Japanese kids are walking around without their parents.
In reality, 2-5 years-old kids do not do errand. I did my first errand when I was 7 years old and I was just sent to a shop very near to the elementary school which I went by foot every day.
Although there is this kind of discussion, I like this program. I am not sure will have kids in the future, but when I watch this program, I feel like having kids.
Cuteness of “Hajimete no Otsukai” can be a mesure to declining birthrate in Japan… maybe?
※Recently in Japan, there has been a lot of talk about data showing that the number of newborn babies in 2024 is bellow 700,000. In 2020, it was about 840,000.
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