See Why Children Aged 6 – 7 Take the Subway & Run Errands Alone in Japan

Unlike what obtains in Nigeria, parents in Japan reportedly expose their children to living independent lives from a very young age. It’s commonplace to see Japanese children as young as 6-7 board mass transits on their way to and from school, individually or in small groups.

In a popular TV show in Japan called Hajimete no Otsukai (My First Errand) which has been on air for over 25 years, children as young as two or three are sent out to carry out a task for their family and secretly filmed by a camera crew.

Kaito, a 12-year-old boy in Tokyo, who has been commuting alone by train between his separated parents’ homes since he was nine was featured. He said: “At first I was a little worried whether I could ride the train alone. But only a little worried.”

His parents were not too sure at first too, but, felt convinced that he was old enough. Besides, a lot of other kids were doing it safely.

Kaito’s stepmother, who said she wouldn’t let a 9-year-old ride the subway alone in London or New York, added: “Honestly, what I remember thinking at the time is, the trains are safe and on time and easy to navigate, and he’s a smart kid. I took the trains on my own when I was younger than him in Tokyo. We didn’t have cell phones back in my day, but I still managed to go from point A to point B on the train. If he gets lost, he can call us.”

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In confirmation, Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist, noted that Japanese parents allow their children such level of independence and freedom because theirs is a society that thrives on group reliance.

He said: (Japanese) kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others…(even schools) distribute labor across various shoulders and rotates expectations, while also teaching everyone what it takes to clean a toilet, for instance…Plenty of kids across the world are self-sufficient. But the thing that I suspect Westerners are intrigued by [in Japan] is the sense of trust and cooperation that occurs, often unspoken or unsolicited.”