What is the secret of the Japanese society that Japanese kids as young as seven years old can walk to school and take the subway alone? Are the parents too busy or too harsh in allowing their children unchaperoned at such a young age?
It is already a common sight in Japan to see teeny tiny kids alone or in small groups trooping to take the subway confidently along with the adults. They walk on the streets carrying their cute little backpacks, in their school uniforms and knee socks.
Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist who have been studying the Japanese culture and wrote his doctoral dissertation about Japanese kids, said that the reason for such confident independence is not about self-reliant, rather it is about group reliance.
The Japanese culture puts a premium on trusting the whole community where every child grows up being taught at home and at school that if anything goes wrong, they can count on any member of the community to help them. In turn, they are also taught that they have to be ready to help others who are in need.
At school, this frame of thought is reinforced by allowing students to take turns on various tasks rather than rely on the staff to do them. These responsibilities range from the simple to the difficult, like cleaning toilets. Again, the emphasis is not on self-reliance but on shared responsibility and the sense of ownership. This is the message every Japanese kid receives while growing up.
This unspoken ethic extends in how the Japanese take care of their public spaces which are why Japanese streets are generally clean. Armed with this knowledge, a young Japanese kid goes out alone confidently because they know they can rely on the community if there is an emergency.
The fact that Japan has a very low crime rate also helps. However, another key element in such independence is that the Japanese public space is designed with safety in mind. These include the culture of walking, preference for public transportation, and small-scale urban spaces which control the flow and speed of traffic.
In Tokyo alone, half of the trips are made using public transportations while one-fourth are used in walking. Furthermore, it is a common sight to see drivers yielding to pedestrians and cyclists. Thus, the freedom that parents have to allow their kids to go out alone is also an unspoken message to the whole community that they trust each other to take care of the children and the whole community.
